Rebirth
by Hyou
Summary: Takato returns to the Digital World with the Tamers' data. Now, standing inside of the Tower of Babel, Takato gives light and life to powerful spirits of old into the Tamers. The actors are being summoned, the climax approaches, new people enter the fight
1. Prelude

alrighty then...my not so grand re-ficcing...thing

this is a Digimon-Tamers fic, beginning about 3 years after the Data-Reaper's attack on Shinjuku. from after the attacks are over, its classified as an AU fic.

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon, Toei Animations owns it.

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**Chapter 0 Prelude to Rebirth**

??? P.O.V.-----------------------------------------------

Shinjuku District of Japan, how long has it been since I've last seen this place? Too long a time ago.

Not much has changed, and yet so much seems to be different. An oxymoron, I know, and yet you can't say it's the same as the last time I saw it.

'Maybe a walk will help me readjust.' I think to myself. So I walk down a path aimlessly until I find a very familiar passageway. I remember walking down this lane almost every single day. But when was the last time I had walked down this lane? A long time ago. I find myself at a small stone shed with an iron gate in the front. Seeing this, I reminisce about past times when my companions and I had met here and had had alot of fun. But just how long ago was it since I had seen or interacted with them? A long time ago.

Continuing my walk, I come across a sakura tree I used to climb and surprise my old friends by jumping out of it. Back then, the sakura blossoms were in full bloom. Now it is dead, devoid of any sign of life. As I look upon it, it seems to wither even more. I'm surprised they havn't knocked this thing down yet and yet I'm glad they didn't. Too many fond memories of this tree lay buried within its layers of skin.

Satisfied with my walk in Shinjuku Park, I decide to go into town. I can see kids running out of every exit available in their schools. I particularly take notice of the Junior High School students as they walk out of class, going home, to the arcades, the gym, and one particular group heading towards the park I had just exited. Paying them no more heed than needed, I continue walking into town, passing many old stores and other places. I see people going on with their routine lives and others just going with the flow.

Bored, now, of my walk in town, i decide to return to the park and take a closer look at the little clique that had gone there a while back. Why do I study this particular group? They are referred to as 'Tamers'. They are heroes of this and the Digital World. That's right, they have digimon with them. I won't go into any detail yet, just study how they live and how they are, I havn't seen them since...too long a time ago.

I stay and watch while sitting in an old oak tree as the Tamers and their digimon have fun and reminisce about times and telling each other how their days went. Their digimon are playing tag I see, I guess tag had made a big impression on them around 3 years ago when it was first introduced to them. Even the stoical Renamon is chuckling alot. Again, don't bother asking because I won't go into any detail as of now. No wait, they're packing up and leaving for their homes, now we can begin.

First I follow a confindent, brown-haired, visor-clad boy. His name is Kazu and his digimon partner, Guardromon, is next to him. I follow them home and take note of their actions and behavior. Nothing special, just goes home, eats, says a quick "Hi!" to his parents and rushes to his room to play video games. Typical. Guardromon follows of course and plays with him, although he does take about 5 more seconds to converse with Kazu's parents. Again, typical.

Moving on to a boy with blue hair, glasses, and a slightly meek nature, namely Kenta, and his partner, MarineAngemon. Well, at least he isn't like Kazu, I expected some of Kazu's attitude to rub off on him after all these years. Nope, he's a bit better. There goes MarineAngemon floating off to the kitchen. I guess he smells something he likes. Then again, there isn't much food he doesn't like. Kenta actually takes time to talk to his parents about his day and goes off to help his dad with computers. Guess hanging around Henry has made him a computer genius as well. Moving on...

Now to the overly confident, brown haired, pompous one, Ryo's...Looks as if he, his dad, and Monodramon were getting ready to throw a Super Bowl bash. I see cheese-heads, foam-finger things, and lots of food and drinks. I'd rather not continue.

Now to Henry's residence. The blue haired, intelligent one of the groups' home is more mild-mannered than most of the homes we just visited. Henry and his family are at the table eating dinner. Terriermon and Lopmon are at a smaller table eating their own dinner. Everything seems perfect until, apparently, Terriermon cracked a serious joke causing pretty much everyone else to explode with laughter sending food everywhere. Maybe I should leave now.

And now Rika's home. She's the one with the fiery orange hair tied into spikes near the base of her head. Rather hard for me to get into a comfortable place to describe what's going on seeing as there are 10 foot walls surrounding the place. Anyway, after a hurtful fall, I'm ready now. Looking through a window, I see Rika and her mother actually enjoying a conversation. Apparently they're on better terms than the last time I saw them. Heck, she even wears dresses now, something she vowed to never be seen wearing. Her grandmother comes in with a tray of tea and they each take a cup and drink. That tea is making me painfully aware of my own thirst. Well, just one more to go.

Ah, the home of Takato and Guilmon.Takato is the unofficial leader of the Tamers, brown haired, goofy expression, and almost never seen without his trademark yellow goggles. I can see him laughing with Guilmon while making the next day's bread with his parents. All of them are smiling and laughing along. Takato is laughing the hardest. All seems to be perfect in this home..........at least.....that is what I would have said....had Takato and Guilmon been there. No, Takato's home actually is more sad and foreboding than all the other places. Takato's mother and father were indeed making bread, but not with the usual fire in their soul.

Takato Matsuki had been classified as M.I.A. after the D-Reaper attacks. Nobody knew the reason why or how he had disappeared. He had just vanished off the face of the earth. But I know, I know all that transpired dealing with Takato. How do I know what exactly had happened to Takato?

Allow me to introduce myself, my name...is Takato Matsuki, former leader of the Tamers.

Right now, I bet you're wondering what happened and why I left.

It all began a long time ago...

And time had everything to do with it.

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**Authors Notes:** ok, this is as far as I can go for now. I've got about 2 1/2 pages of writing down for this chapter. hopefully it'll be longer the next few chapters.

unfortunately for you, I won't be doing the synopsis of the next chapters as usual. lol

review, flame, love, hate, just reply to my story please.


	2. The Clock is Ticking

alright, here i go again. hopefully this is longer and i'll do a much better job than before

just a side note, Alice won't show up in person for a good long while although she will be referred to.

Disclaimer: dont own digimon

huge props to my first 3 reviewers, thanks. didnt think i'd get appraisals. on with it then

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**Chapter 1: The Clock is Ticking**

**Takato's P.O.V. ---------------------------------------------------------**

As stated before, time had everything to do with my little, 'inconsistency' soon after the Data-Reaper's rampage throughout Shinjuku.

But let me begin during our escapade in the Digital World, beginning with our encounter with Beelzebumon.

**Flashback-----------------------------------------------------------------**

**"NO, YOU CANNOT LOSE, I WON'T ALLOW IT!! DIGIVOLVE! DIGIVOLVE NOW!!!!!"**

Leomon had just been deleted about a minute before and I had lost myself in my rage. My rage fueled Guilmon, my saurian companion, to digivolve to his Ultimate form but it still wasn't enough. Slashing every card available, I forced him to fight. He still got tossed around like a rag doll. I couldn't accept the fact we were about to lose. I didn't give a shit about the consequences about what I was about to do. I held up my D-Arc in a rage and focused all of my rage into the bond Guilmon and I shared through the device. All of a sudden, a bright red light enveloped WarGrowlmon. My D-Arc began to shriek and break apart but I payed it no heed. All I cared about was the POWER, THE AMAZING, DESTRUCTIVE POWER!!! I've never felt so much power, ever. I fed my rage, despair, and the power into Guilmon creating the ultimate inconsistency that had ever been spawned in the Digital World. Megidramon, the Dark Dragon. Luckily, I was able to get over my anger and realize what I had done to my best friend and that made up the catalyst to Bio-merge Digivolution. Together, we created Guilmon's true Mega form, Gallantmon. Unfortunately we had overlooked one factor during our fight. I'll get back to that soon.

Well, we got back to the Real World. We found out about the D-Reaper and fought. Luckily, our once worst enemy, the Juggernaut, enabled Henry as MegaGargomon to revert it to it's most basic form and send it into a portal to some unknown plane. The attacks were finally over.

At least the attacks on the city. The D-Reaper had apparently evolved more than the Monster Makers had said it did. It somehow had grasped one part of the Time Space continuom.

Remember that thing about time I said? This is where it screwed up the second time. The first time was the untimely death of Leomon that created the disruption of balance. I swear that this thing was making fun of my horrible timing for almost everything.

One piece of the chaos had attached itself to me during the fight with the J-Reaper while the Mother-Reaper sent it's final instructions to ruin life as I knew it. As the D-Reaper plunged into the hole, it's began to carry out it's last program. Of course, I took no notice.

After the D-Reaper was completely gone, and all attacks on the city were over, the stupid thing came to life. I was writhing in pain, as was Guilmon while fragments of data came out of both of us. It had taken on a most frightening and familiar form. It just said one phrase, "JDR-02", and rushed off. Guilmon and I quickly Bio-merged into Gallantmon and rushed to follow it. What we didn't notice was the small timer on my chest, right in the center of the Hazard symbol.

**"00:00:10" **was what it read.

I jumped on top of a building, only to see the JDR-02 smirk and jump on another building.

**"00:00:07"**

I caught up and slammed the Aegis, my shield, into the Agent's head.

**"00:00:04"**

The Agent struck back knocking us back. I got up pointed the Grahm, the lance, at JDR-02.

**"00:00:01"**

"Lightning Joust!" The beam pierced through the Agent.

**"00:00:00"**

"Time is up fool." The JDR-02 gave it's eery smile as it dissipated into data and the timer on our chest began to absorb the data. I felt the data's presence in my mind as it began to speak out. "I've been watching you from for a while. I see deep rage within you. This goes against my programming, you have exceeded your programmed limits. Unfortunately, my main body has deteriorated but I can still carry it out in another aspect. By destroying reality as you know it. If you will notice, we're in something similar to the Kernel Sphere. Inside, nothing will have changed. But outside, everything that you held dear is changing. You will see what happens when you go against our will."

I blacked out just then. The pain echoing in my head just didn't go away until I did.

I woke up to a striking pain in my side. I woke up and saw Guilmon nearby. I looked up and saw my friends to my right. I was about to greet them joyously until I noticed their eyes. They held unmistakeable rage against me, as did their digimon.

**Forward a Few Hours--------------------------------------------------------------------**

They sure seem pretty chummy with each other when I'm not around. I don't get it, how did this happen?

Wait, there's Mr. Yamaki! Maybe he knows. I run towards him until I hear the words, "Matsuki has been labeled as M.I.A.. Are you kids sure you didn't see him after the attacks were over?" I look over to my friends and I can practically see dark cogs working in their heads. The deceiving little....I can't believe this! I can hear a slight laugh in the background but don't pay much attention to it.

Once Mr. Yamaki left, I turned to have a word with Guilmon only to see his coloring had reversed. His predominant color was black and all the markings were red. "Guilmon?" was all I could say. Guilmon cocked his head to the side and said, "I think I'm BlackGuilmon now...I think?" This was too weird and too much for me to handle. I signaled to Guil...no, _Black_Guilmon, to move quietly. We went over to the stone shed BlackGuilmon used for a home and saw that it had been vandalized. I couldn't believe it! 'How did all this graffiti get here so fast? And...why is all this aimed at us?', was what I thought as the graffiti was making fun of us and very rude.

Just then, a digi-gnome popped up through the portal Guilmon made a while back. It giggled and circled the two of us. It gave a little nudge in the direction of the portal and the three of us went in. Just as I reached the entrance of the portal, another digi-gnome came up in front of me and BlackGuilmon. The two digi-gnomes made a small cage and began to do something weird. Then, I noticed that the cage seemed to turn into cubes and got a real shock when the cubes seperated and took whatever body-part that was in it with it, leaving gaps in my body. I began to yell when the cubes dissipated into data. One by one, all cubes, including the ones trapping BlackGuilmon dissipated into data. The last of the cubes disappeared and I blacked out.

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**Author's Notes**

ok...i think this chapter could hav gone alot better if i didnt write with half a mental block.

kudos to any1 who can guess who Takato and BlackGuilmon first meet when they wake back up .

like i stated earlier, mad props to all my first reviewers. sorry though, after this chapter, i might not update for about a month cuz of stupid finals and AP projects n stuff. if you guys stick with me through that, let praise be yours!

review for this too plz


	3. Deletion

AWESOME. my ap us hist teacher gave us around another week to work on our projects so i get to write this new chp out.

To Angel of Mana: thanks, you were one of the last people i expected to review. i really enjoy your fics. oyea, if you thought this was like something archangemon wrote...i'll explain underneathe. of course, i could hav made a misconception : )

To the readers: please keep in mind this is my first fic that has been published. also **(pay much attention here!!!!!)** this is a **flashback. **its just really long-winded because Takato will be summarizing **( --------- KEY WORD!!!)** what happened in the three years. Part I is all about the three years in between (or just the major parts. I needa get to Part II soon). Part II is when Alice finally makes an appearance (or it could be at the very end of Part I when she shows). Part II will also be when Takato starts talking about the present and once more confronting his friends although in a different approach. so basically Part II is the main body of my story, so please wait patiently and bear with me folks.

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon, nor any other franchised items/names that may and will appear in this fic.

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**Chapter 2 Deletion**

**Takato's P.O.V.---------------------------------------------------------------------------**

Last time we left off when **Black**Guilmon and I went to the portal and had been digitized. Lemme tell you, it wasn't fun. When I had woken up, it felt like the hangover from hell.

**Flashback--------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

The ground felt unbelievably good to sleep on. I mean come on, compared to being turned into tiny particles and floating hazardously is worse than....alot of things. So I did just that, slept. Until I got zapped a little on my rear making me spring to life.

As I got up, I took notice of my surroundings. Off to my right was what seemed like an endless desert. In front of me (well maybe about 5 miles), I could see a lush, green looking plain with lots of vegetation which vaguely reminded me of something. I spun around looking for BlackGuilmon, only to trip over him and land back on the floor. 'Of course,' I thought to myself. 'He's on the ground...sleeping. What else is new?' Lucky for me, BlackGuilmon woke up as well.

"Well then, now that you two have awakened, maybe we can get down to business." a booming voice above us said. We looked up to see Azulongmon, in all his electrifying glory. 'So I guess that explains that zap to my fanny.'

Azulongmon told me what the D-Reaper had done to me. I guess it was lucky the D-Reaper had been destroyed before BlackGuilmon and I had fought the JDR-02. Since the main body had deteriorated, whatever it had done to the Real World wasn't strong enough to affect the Digital World. I was still welcome here.

Here's the scary part of my experience. Out of all the years after the "incident", I still can't say that anything was scarier than what Azulongmon was about to do to me right then.

"Takato, BlackGuilmon. I'm going to have to ask you to put your complete faith in me. Bio-Merge." I didn't like the sound of his tone but agreed to do so. "Bio-Merge Activate!" At first, the process seemed normal, but I began to notice something different. Not only was I feeling alot stronger, I also felt the Viral tendencies bubbling up. Neither BlackGuilmon or I had ever felt that during our Bio-Merge before. After, we were done digivolving, we automatically said, "ChaosGallantmon!"

We looked at our new form. Well it wasn't all that different. Just a difference in color. We were a darker shade of navy and the Hazard on our chest was gold instead of its usual black. We weren't given anymore time to admire our new form or contemplate on how it was established. Azulongmon spoke up, "ChaosGallantmon, turn and face me. Do you trust me?" Automatically, we said, "Yes Azulongmon sir. We trust you."

He also said, "I'm very sorry." Those were to the last words we heard. All of a sudden, a dozen digi-gnomes showed up and Azulongmon attacked us. We were instantly deleted and knew no more.

**Normal P.O.V.-------------------------------------------------------------------**

Azulongmon fired a beam that ripped right through ChaosGallantmon. The digi-gnomes then quickly gathered and created a sphere around the data and Azulongmon. Then, the digital Sovereign, with the help of two digi-gnomes, sifted through the data, searching for the final piece of the chaos that was left.

He did find it, but there was a problem. He wanted to remove the corrupted data from the two's being but the data had merged itself into the heart of ChaosGallantmon. If he extracted the data, the digital stability of ChaosGallantmon would be removed as well. "Damnit! How can I do this?! I can't risk losing ChaosGallantmon and we can't rebuild that data without the core!" Azulongmon was furious. Even after defeat, the D-Reaper was a nuisance. Just then, the two digi-gnomes shot through Azulongmon taking one of his Digicores from the remaining 11. They carried it over to where the core data was contained. Azulongmon caught on to what they were about to do. "No wait! Don't do it, there has to be another way to do this!" They deleted the corrupted core data.

ChaosGallantmon's data began to fiz as it flew wildly around the sphere. The two digi-gnomes with the core deleted themselves and their data surrounded the Digicore. One by one, ChaosGallantmon's data began to piece itself around the core until, finally, he was restored.

**Takato's...or ChaosGallantmon's P.O.V. (depends)-------------------------------------**

Of course, you can guess I/we were confused. And when people get confused, they get angry, alot. And boy did I feel angry then. The Viral Tendencies came back just then with a vengence. I was just about to delete Azulongmon and I almost did. 'An eye for an eye, and a deletion for a deletion.'

In Cliff's Notes version: I attacked. Azulongmon zapped me back to reality.

"You've become more viral than normal. Do you remember the time when you fought against Beelzebumon?" Azulongmon asked. Of course I nodded. That is something I can never forget.

Now remember in the previous chapter when I said that while Bio-Merged, we had overlooked one factor? A small recant for your thoughts.

When we defeated Beelzebumon, we were going to delete him. Just that. That one moment, we screwed up. The rage was still present. Sure we were calmer than we had been, no longer a killing machine. But we were still angry. Anger, sorrow, and love. These three emotions go hand-in-hand. They make up all of us, just these three emotions. Out of anger and sorrow, we wanted to delete Beelzebumon. Out of the love for my friends, we stopped when Jeri called out for us to let him live. These three are to be in balance. Unfortunately for us, we fell out of the balance.

Anger and sorrow reign now in us. Our love is overshadowed by the negative emotions. The sorrow we felt when we were rejected, that is now the dominant emotion. The sorrow made up Guilmon's alternate forms, BlackJyarimon, BlackGigimon, BlackGuilmon, BlackGrowlmon, BlackWarGrowlmon, and now ChaosGallantmon (did I get the names correct?).

I now held BlackJyarimon in my arms. He looks just like a black blob, which is pretty much what he is.

Azulongmon now spoke, "You need to be able to control your emotions better. You need to spend some time away from stressful activities that can cause agitation. The danger of Megidramon is still present. He is the embodiment of your anger manifested into Guilmon's body. If you cannot control yourself, you will be the death of him." This of course shook me up. I didn't want to lose my best friend just because of a stupid mistake.

"I'm sending you away Takato. You will be staying with someone you owe alot to. She's the reason why you were able to defeat the D-Reaper. (ok, if you can't figure out who this is from this point on, you're the most dimwitted person unless you've never seen the Tamers-saga) You'll be staying with Alice McCoy, she will help you to control your anger. She was present in the Digital World after Dobermon made his sacrifice so you need not worry."

That's pretty much all of what had happened. The first two years with Alice weren't all that tough. It just was frustrating because I was still just a 10 year old boy. I had to mature quickly, as did BlackGuilmon. The third year was spent on working with our new form. ChaosGallantmon turned out to be much stronger than Gallantmon as ChaosGallantmon was created out of two powerful emotions interacting with each other. I hate to admit it, but it was, and still is, enjoyable to fight as ChaosGallantmon.

**End Flashback--------------------------------------------------------------------**

So now you have a brief history of what had happened during my time in the Digital World. I can't say I didn't enjoy it though. Spending time with Alice was....enjoyable. She was smart, calm, caring, pretty, and...wait a sec'. I just said she was pretty? 'Damn, rushing hormones. But she is pretty, and real cute with those two ponytails and....gah shit,' I thought to myself. Spending three years in the Digital World didn't stop me from growing up. I slightly shook my head and walked into the city.

It's around 5 o'clock p.m. A lot of kids are still out having fun. I decide to check out the card shop, I havn't been there in a while. Luckily, I have some money with me. I was going to buy a few packs until I saw _the _poster. I walked away from the counter for a moment to read it.

"Digimon Card Game Expo!!! All players and fans are welcome!!! Special Promotions and an interview with the creators of Digimon and the famous Card Game!!! Don't miss out! Special Guests: The Real Live Tamers in Person and their Digimon!!!"

I saw that the expo was in two days and made a mental note to pay the Tamers a nice little visit. I purchased my cards and went over to a small cafe. I still hadn't gotten a drink and I was terribly thirsty. This new place, Starbucks I think they called it, was a nice little place. It was a quiet, relaxed atmosphere.

I got a drink and headed over to a small table near the windows. I watched people, especially the little kids, go about their business. I just wish that my life was like theirs, care-free and fun.

I walk back over to Shinjuku Park to take a small break from my excursion. Surprisingly, all this activity had worn me out. I guess living in the Digital World made me unfamiliar with the Real World.

It's getting dark. I should get home soon. 'I wonder where BlackGuilmon is? And Alice.' I hear soft footsteps behind me. I smile slightly, 'Speak of the devil and here she comes.' I turn to face Alice with her usual non-emotional look on her face and BlackGigimon sleeping in her arms. "Aww, how cute. BlackGigimon's asleep." I say. Alice says nothing, but I can just barely make out a small twinkle in her eyes. That's good enough for me.

"You were supposed to be home and hour ago Takato."

I scratch the back of my head and grin a bit.

"Ehehe...sorry Alice, guess I had a lot of things to catch up to."

Alice, again, says nothing but nods and heads back down the path where she came. Knowing where she is headed, I decide to follow because if I get home any later, she'd lock me out.

**End Part I**

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**Author's Notes: **so what is your opinion of this chapter? suckier than the last? or is my material getting a bit better?

ok, after this chapter, definitely dont expect a quick update cuz now i hav finals, stupid overzealous teachers breathing down my neck, and other stuff among many other things.

Special thanks to everyone who at least bothers to skim over my material. The readers are the ones who truly make the story.

Flames, review, criticism (helpful or not) all welcome


	4. A Warning

ok, finals are over, and i can tell i screwed up badly. T-T

for those of you that still keep up with the reading, thx

To Legendary: well i dont know the exact time Alice makes her first appearance. All i know is that she came cuz the Tamers were getting wooped and helped to let them Bio-Merge again.

To ominix: wat do you mean another Takato? it was a clever form of syntax to bring about more feeling into the writing.

Enter Part II, Tamers and Takato. keep in mind, one of the main antagonists of the story will make his appearance sumwhere in Part II. If you can guess who it is, good job (and no, its not my OC).

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon nor any franchised items/names that may and will appear in this fic.

oyea, the song of this chapter is Black Out from Initial D (preferably vocal battle one) during the card battle.

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**Part II, Introduction of the Chaos Chapter 1**

**Takato's P.O.V.-**

Well as it turns out, I was late in going home. So that means Alice locked me out. Just great. I may have feelings for her, but this is going too far for tolerance of her. I whined for maybe a good 10 minutes outside the front door until I heard a window slide open and BlackGigimon's head poked out of it. "Takato! Alice told me to let you in through here", he said in his childish voice. I quickly climbed in...only to fall into the garbage can. Groaning, I picked myself up, only to see Alice giggling slightly. Alice. Giggling. That is definitely an improvement. She noticed me staring and asked, "What are you looking at?" "Nothing. It's just that I've never heard you laugh before. You should do it more often, you really sound nice when you're laughing."

Immediately I blushed and looked away. Luckily, it was dark in the house so she might not see the intense shade of red rush across my cheeks like wildfire. "Go take a shower, Takato. I've finally got an excuse to make you clean yourself and I'm not losing the opportunity to get you to smell nice for once." That irked me a bit, but I thought of the consequences of the comeback I might have said and immediately replied, "Yes ma'am."

She would have kicked my ass in less time than Rika ever could.

**The Next Day-**

Well I guess Alice was right, I smelled pretty bad before I took that shower. Good thing I took it, because this is my first day of school. Apparently, I'm enrolled in West Shinjuku Junior High, same as the Tamers. I can't help but grimace at the possible reactions of my former friends if they recognized who I really am. Hopefully my new attire would throw them off.

I have ditched the goggles because they would have been a dead give-away. My hair is dyed black and I mean black. So black that the contrast to the light is dizzying. I'm wearing white sneakers, jeans, a white t-shirt, and black sweater. Nothing really fancy, I don't want to attract any attention.

In the place of my goggles, are navy shades. They are perched where my goggles usually are perched. My D-Arc and deck are clipped onto my belt and covered by my sweater.

I enter the school grounds and slowly begin my walk to the Pricipal's office. Mr. Yamasaki is his name. He seems nice. He gives me my schedule and shows me around the school. I notice the Tamers out of the corner of my eye. Looks as though they're pretty popular, I can see many girls clinging to Ryo's and Henry's arms. The guys are crowding around Rika and Jeri.

Did I forget to introduce Jeri? She's the one Tamer who no longer has a Digimon. Her partner, Leomon, was deleted by Beelzebumon. She lives with her younger brother, father, and step-mother. She's not all too fond of her step-mother. It seems as though she has gotten over the trauma from losing Leomon. All the Tamers seem to be soaking up all the fame like a sponge to water.

The bell for first period rings. I take a look at my schedule and see I have Literature and Writing Composition first. I walk slowly to my room, I really don't want to be at school, but then again, what kid looks forward to school unless something of more dire consequences happens to exist? I open the door and walk to the teacher, handing her the note. She smiles and nods. She gets up from grading papers and addresses the class. For the first time, I take in the room and the people there. I immediately groan inwardly, Rika and Henry are in this class. I also notice that the only vacant seat happens to be right in between them. 'Oh joy, my first day here and I'm already in trouble.'

Mrs. Nagata (my teacher) addressed the class, "Students, we have a new friend joining us today. Please introduce yourself to the class." With that, she looked at me expectantly and I stared blankly back at her and the class.

"Er...my name is Hiroshi, Kaya, 'Kay' for short. It's uh...nice to meet you.". Yes, interesting alias isn't it. Alice came up with that one.

"Very well Kaya, or Kay. You may take the vacant seat to Rika's right. Rika, please raise your hand"

"Yea, yea." With that, Rika rose her hand and whispered under her breath, "Stupid hag.". Of course, her description isn't correct, Mrs. Nagata is in her early 20's but that's beside the point. The point is, I'm stuck between two enemies until who knows when.

I slowly make my way down the aisle and take my seat, noiselessly. I can feel the burning stares of the entire class on me. Why look at me? Maybe it's because Rika and Henry are looking at me, maybe the rest of the class are their worshipers I saw outside. I gather my courage and look over at Rika and give her a puzzling look. She looks away blushing. 'What the icy, burning, blistering heat of hell! Blushing!' That cannot be right... And yet, somehow, by a cruel twist of fate, she did blush and is still blushing. Very noticeably might I add.

'This will be an interesting first day,' I thought sardonically to myself. All throughout first period I could feel Rika staring at me and feel the burning glares of the majority of the male population of the class. I silently thanked God when class ended...only to groan again when I found out that the vast majority of my classes included at least one Tamer.

When school was over, I began to walk away until I heard footsteps behind me. Having a good idea of who's it was, I pick up the pace only to get my arm ripped out of its location and into Rika's grip.

"Hi there, Kay, I'm Rika Nonaka. Sorry I wasn't able to introduce myself earlier. Want to go out for a drink? That way we can get to know each other better"

I must be dreaming...Rika, the hardcore Digimon Ice Queen, offering to go out on the equivalent of a date.

"I-I...er sorry, but I promised my, uh, cousin! Yeah, I promised my cousin that I'd help her with moving back into Shinjuku." Thankfully, she bought it. At least I think. Well it's partly true, Alice was moving back into her new home in Shinjuku and she'd really appreciate it if I helped out. Not that she would say anything of course. I left Rika looking a bit crushed which, of course, stirred my too nice part of my personality. "How about some other time", and immediately slapped myself mentally, because she caught the rebound perfectly. Instantly, she blushed again and agreed to go on Sunday (today happens to be Friday in this timeline, and, yes, the coming expo is on a Saturday).

Boy, this place sure changed beyond what I had expected, even after the JDR-02 had told me. Rika. Being girly. I guess I did rather like Rika better when she had her tom-boy act. As I walk towards home, I keep thinking about my past life and how I could change it...if I were able to that is. I was so engrossed in my thoughts that I didn't notice I had walked a few meters past the door...right into Rika. 'Joy...'

"Hi Kay! Are you free after all?" "N-no, I, uh, still have to help her move in. Wow, look at the time, I gotta get going, I'llseeyoulaterRikabye!", and rushed into my home cursing my luck. Of all places Alice had to choose to move in, she chose the neighborhood Rika lives in. I sighed and began to furnish the house. Alice was conveniently out of the house.

**Saturday, The Day of the Digimon Card Game Expo, 7:00 A.M.-**

Yeah, yeah, why am I awake at the inhuman hour of 7:00 A.M. on a Saturday. Well it's definitely not to watch Saturday morning cartoons. No, I'm making final modifications to my deck. I'm going to challenge Rika to a match, that's right, Rika. Maybe this would get her off my arms. Also my supposed introduction to the Tamers. A coming out party if you will. I'm flipping through my deck and extras, looking for potential ways to knock Rika off her high stool. I notice something in the cards I have just recently bought. 'Oh yes, these will _definitely _help me.' I pick up the four cards and add them into the deck. The exposition begins in three hours, just enough time to figure out a strategy for the four cards. I smile as I play a practice match, 'These cards will save my ass, I know it.'

As I leave the house, I tuck in BlackGigimon. Unfortunately, I can't bring him in case the Digimon sense his presence. Not like it matters much, Alice has taken such a shine to BlackGigimon. Maybe it's because he's an adorable looking head with eyes that immediately captivate you. Also the fact that he's just a head with four tiny legs and a tail and the way he looks up at you with those big eyes. Eh, in short, he's a girl's ideal plush toy. I grab a waffle on my way out and head for town.

Surprisingly, many people are up at 9:00 A.M. Not all of them are adults. Actually, the majority of them are kids...camping out in front of the Convention Center? 'Meh, kids. Can't keep away from real, live Digimon.' Fortunately, they're all asleep because I'm about to something really mean. I cut in line. Yes, am I not the most evil person you have ever met? Fortunately, these kids had incredibly bad memories and I was able to get in with no trouble. As I came in, I was handed a bag that included a photo of the Tamers with their Digimon. On the back were the signatures of them all. Another item included was a toy D-Arc, some modify cards, and a random Digimon figurine. I stuffed them into my backpack and went to look around the place. There were some very bad looking cosplayers. Davis and Tai never looked that bad...or had a 40 inch waist.

It's around 11:00, the Tamers should be showing up soon. Oh wait, there they are. Time to make my move. While they were being idolized, I walked up to the podium and stood right in front of the Tamers. With a confident smirk on my face, I stared all of them down. "Hello Tamers, nice day isn't it?" Ryo stepped up with an angry look on his face, "Just who do you think you are? You can't just waltz up here and talk to us like that!" I smiled slightly and shook my head. "I'm not here to shoot the breeze with you guys, I'm here to challenge you to a card battle!" "You want a battle? You've got-" "Not you, bonehead. It's Rika I'm challenging." I look over to Rika who looks surprised for a second and that surprise was then replaced with a confident smirk. She nodded and signaled to a guard to set up a table.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! Looks like the famous Digimon Queen has received a challenge in a card battle! What a treat, isn't it?"

(I'm sorry, but I've never actually played the card game before so my scenes will be short)

**Normal P.O.V.-**

The card battle seemed pretty even, Kay (Takato) was keeping up with all of Rika's moves. Everyone could see that Rika was getting frustrated. She had never had much of a challenge from anyone other than Ryo. Kay just had his poker face on, smirking every now and then whenever he drew.

The reason Rika seemed so frustrated and off balance were the cards Kay had played three of his 'special' cards: Renamon, Kyuubimon, and Taomon, the exact same moves that Rika had been making. She was starting to sweat, and everyone, especially Kay could see it. Until she drew her next card, when she gave an exclamation of an assured victory.

**Takato's P.O.V.-**

I saw Rika's mood lift when she drew her next card. I have a good idea of what she drew. 'And the next card Rika plays is-' "Sakuyamon!"

Rika seemed pretty sure of her victory with that card, so sure that, "Tell you what, cutie, since I like you, I'll give you one turn to try and save yourself." There-in lies her one fatal weakness, over-confidence. One turn is probably all that I would need. I drew...and quite obviously got the card I needed. I gave a grimace.

"Aww...what's wrong, didn't get the card you need?" "Oh contrair, Rika. I'm just sad thinking about how humiliating this defeat will be for you."

Triumphantly, I digivolved Taomon, not into Sakuyamon as Rika had done. No, I chose a more devastating force, "Gulfmon!" Rika slammed her hands down on the table, "What! You can't do that! Taomon cannot digivolve into Gulfmon!" "Oh yes she can, read the digivolution requirements. If you do, I believe you'll find that Gulfmon's requirements include a Mephistamon_or _Taomon for a digivolution. I believe that I've won this game."

The entire convention became silent as Rika and I shook hands. The Tamers were the most subdued of all. Rika had been defeated so easily by an unknown. I silently bowed and walked out the door. The message was sent, "Watch out because here I come."

**Author's Notes-**

Well if you havnt guessed yet, this chapter was partly dedicated to my huge support of Rukato. I promise my next fic will be a Rukato, no worries.

Oyea, another clue to the next antagonist, it's not Gulfmon. lol, yea big help isnt it?

Thanks for staying with me so far.

Reviews would be nice. Thank you.


	5. The Order

for those of you who have been anticipating the new chapter, im really sorry it took much longer than the others. i've recently ran out of creative juices and thats scary, considering i planned out most of this story a month preceding the publishing date. well here's the new installment, i hope you guys enjoy this.

Heroine of the Valley: well of course this story isn't over. not by a longshot. i have planned for this story to be at least 15 chapters, the VERY least. thx for reviewing, you've won the MFRA; the Most Frequent Reviewer Award. although it was cuz u actually reviewed for every chapter lol, thx for the reassurement that others can enjoy this story as my other reviewers.

oh, before i forget, theres going to be the VERY first battle scene for this story in this chapter, and in the present timeline as well. no more lously flashbacks until around the time the other main antagonist makes his appearance. But...thats gonna be around like chapter 10 or sumwhat... .

Disclaimer: I wish I owned Digimon...I can manipulate the franchises to make me rich! mwahahahaha...ehem, sorry, i was having a moment. so i dun own it... .

Speech Key:  
'text' thoughts  
"text" speech  
'''text''' private, bio-merge speech (as in, Tamer talking to Digimon telepathically while in bio-merged form)

**Part III, Introduction to the Chaos Chapter 2**

**Takato's P.O.V.**

Maybe it was a bit overdramatic to beat Rika so badly in that card battle. It will definitely cause quite a ruckus when they realize who I am. Well you don't expect me to keep my identity a secret forever do you? It's a long-term plan that only has a 50 chance of succeeding.

After the Convention, I headed home, it was around 12, noon. I went home quickly, Alice doesn't like it when I'm gone for too long from where we live for the moment, especially without protection.

When I came to the front of the house, sure enough, Alice was waiting with BlackGigimon there as well. Alice looked...impatient, to say the least. Well I guess she has a valid explanation, I didn't exactly tell her about the Convention and my plans.

Alice just glared a little at me and said, "Follow me, Takato" and began walking into town (BlackGigimon along for the trip as well). We went to a small Korean sushi bar and Alice dragged me over to the most vacated section of the restaurant. We, or Alice, ordered two Specials of the House, one, I'm guessing for us and the other for BlackGigimon. Guess that's why she chose the most, out-of-the-way table for us. We sat in awkward silence, only broken by the constant whining of BlackGigimon for food, until the food arrived.

"Takato, I don't know _why _you were so dramatic in approaching the Tamers. If I were to state my opinion of the matter, I would say you were feeling a little angry." That's quite a mouthful, normally she doesn't say more than seven words at once. But she's right.

"I...I guess you're right. I just felt like I was betrayed when I saw them again. We used to be such good friends, even Rika." As I kept muttering, my head began to droop even more in shame and regret...Until I felt a hand on mine. My head began to ascend as I traced the arm up to Alice's face. She gave me a comforting smile and a small squeeze to my hand. I felt a little nudge on my lower shins and saw BlackGigimon giving me a large smile with his mouth open, partly filled with sashimi and shrimp. This was more than enough for me to smile again. I returned the squeeze to Alice's hand and reached down to pet BlackGigimon on head and wipe his mouth a bit. The rest of the meal continued in mutual understanding and silence.

Until we heard a large explosion.

I looked down at BlackGigimon and saw he had gone feral as he had done many times before when a wild Digimon Bio-Emerged into the Real World. I looked up at Alice and she gave me an ecouraging nod. "Go protect this city, Mr. Hero." I grabbed BlackGigimon and rushed out the door. The last words I heard from Alice while leaving was, "I expect you back home by 3 p.m." I gave a small smile over my shoulder, Alice sure knows how to get you prepared for a fight.

**Elsewhere, Unknown P.O.V...**

Pandemonium, screaming, cries for help...this is true food for the soul, the evil soul.

But, no time for fun, I have my mission from the Master.

But a small snack wouldn't hurt would it? Grinning, I pick my targets and begin walking to them, hunger egging me on...

**Back to Takato**

"According to witnesses, they say it's a large dinosaur Digimon. I wish they hadn't been so vague though." I mumble to BlackJyarimon, who is stuffed into my sweater hood. He mumbles something back but I can't make sense of it because of the noise of people running in the opposite direction of the way I'm going.

"Look! It's chasing those children!" That got through quite nicely. I decided not to take any chances. I run into an alley in the direct path of where the Digimon is headed and see a wooden fence half-way through. I grab BlackJyarimon from the hood, "Let's go! BlackJyarimon, digivolve!"

"BlackJyarimon warp-digivolve to BlackGuilmon!"

And promptly smashed the fence down. Not bothering to stop, BlackGuilmon and I rush through the wreckage...and come to a slow stop.

"This...complicates things." I say, looking up at a rather large, black version of SkullGreymon. He has the same hungry look that BlackGuilmon shows...except this was rabid hunger, directed at the children futily trying to stay away from the monster.

"No...NO! BlackGuilmon, one more time! Digivolve!" I say while swiping the newly-made Blue-Card.

"BlackGuilmon excel-digivolve to BlackWarGrowlmon!" (I just added the "excel" because it sounds more correct than just "digivolve" cuz he's going Ultimate from Rookie)

The large mecha-dragon stood proudly over his Tamer and the children he had just grabbed to safety. The children ran away quickly, having had more Digimon than needed for the rest of the week. "Alright, let's go, wipe the floor with this guy BlackWarGrowlmon!" (now, mind you, i dont know the darker evolution attacks other than ChaosGallantmon's, so I'm improvising here so please bear with me.) "Atomic Flare!" and then came crimson colored rays from BlackWarGrowlmon's armour. BlackSkullGreymon turned around too slowly to avoid the attack. Or so we thought.

With shocking speed that could rival Rapidmon's, BlackSkullGreymon avoided the attack and turned his attention to us.

"Well I've lost my lunch, but I've found _you._ I fail for lunch, but I succeed in finding you, the Order of the Dark Lords will be pleased to know I will have disposed of you." We barely had time to think, 'The _Who_?' before, "Double Dark Shot!" and his two projectiles came at us at the same speed BlackSkullGreymon moved with. I didn't have time to think, I just pulled out a random modify-card and ripped it through the slot hoping for the best. Our luck held out, it was Sakuyamon's barrier. But that was a double-edged sword, it took the energy needed to sustain BlackWarGrowlmon's form, thus reverting him to his rookie form, considerably robbed of power.

"This is the duo that was heard to be impossible to defeat? Pah, I wonder why the Order would be interested in such weaklings as yourselves."

'I don't get it! This guy has more power than a normal ultimate should. Even at his high level, he shouldn't be this powerful! Azulongmon won't like it, but I promised him I'd protect everyone no matter what!'

I looked over at BlackGuilmon, he understood and got into position. Both hands holding the D-Arc, I held up the device in front of me and focused on the energies that held both me and BlackGuilmon together. The effect was instantanious, "Bio-Merge activate!"

BlackGuilmon and I began to merge as our connected energies broke through the bonds and united, our energies sky-rocketing. We felt the Viral Tendencies, but they came at much lower quantities than before, offering us more control of our energy. "Alice, you rock!" we said as we completed the fusion. We snapped our eyes open and summoned our shield and lance (I'm sorry but i cant remember the lance's dark name, i only remember the Gorgon, the shield, and it wouldnt be proper to use one and not the other). Our visor flipped up and showed fierce, red eyes.

In a speed that made BlackSkullGreymon look like a floating butterfly, we battered him with a combination of beatings from our shield and lance. He was down, barely. Groaning, BlackSkullGremon got up, "This...This is the power...the same power the Master..." and charged at us again, this time with much more force than we perceived. He ransacked us through about three lobbies of buildings until we managed to push away. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I had to hide. I peeked from the corner of the building I was hiding behind breathing heavily. 'Just who is this guy? He gained alot of energy all of a sudden, alot of _familiar_ energy...' I had to end this quick, he was turning on the buildings, wrecking them instead of me now. Gathering myself, I charged. "Judecca Prison!" we cried. BlackSkullGreymon turned and we saw the attack pass through the gaps between his ribs. We closed our eyes, "Crap..."...until, **BANG**. "Gaaaaaah!" We opened our eyes only to see BlackSkullGreymon dissipate into data. "Did we do that?" "No, I did."

I quickly turned around to just barely make out a figure in the shadows. I couldn't distinguish him because of the large cloak hanging from his shoulders and the hood covering his face. All I saw was the data heading towards his extended hand and collect into a small sphere and drop into his palm. "Impressive, ChaosGallantmon. Although that performance is quite mediocre compared to the training you did in the Digital World. You compacted your attack into a spear of energy when the normal width of the attack would have been more on-target. Like this." The hand that held the sphere rose up and pointed to condemned building, the sphere hanging in air in front of the enigma's palm. It blinked briefly before it exploded and a large beam shot out and decimated the building. "A spear of energy is only useful if you are 100 percent sure you will hit your target. Also that it is very limited, spears only puncture the enemy when blasts hit them all at once. I expected better of you, trained by the Sovereigns and all. Heh, if you couldn't stand up to this lower life-form, I wonder how you will deal with the others of the Order. We have a large bounty on your head, ChaosGallantmon. I look forward to when I am sent by the Master to _attend _to you. Farewell until then."

"He...just disappeared. Who are these guys...and just what is this 'Order of the Dark Lords'?" We sighed and looked around...and saw the Tamers gaping at us. "Uh..." 'Crap', was what we said and thought. Ryo looked at us questioningly, "You were sent by Azulongmon? You must be really strong then!" Inwardly, I praised God that the Tamers didn't, as of yet, figure out who I am. But Rika didn't look too fooled, "You sound familiar...just like...some guy I think I know."

'''Praise God in Heaven above they still don't know that it's me or Kay right, boy?''' '''Yup, 'cuz Alice would be really really mad at you.'''

I didn't notice that the Tamers were trying to talk to me until Rika kicked us in our shins. "Ow! Huh? Oh, sorry but I've got to go, uhm...pressing matters at hand. Farewell." And with that I jumped away (keep in mind, ChaosGallantmon cannot fly but jumps _far_!).

so, any1 wanna make guesses at the members of the Order of the Dark Lords? lol, if you can guess 1 member correctly, and send me your email address, i'll give a lil spoiler to the final chapters of Rebirth and just who the hell the other antagonist is. lol, it should be rather easy though...so the first 3 people who send their answers i guess

i really appreciate you guys reading this, even after my screw ups and stuff

if you have any guesses to a member, send to this address yahgohbee yahoo . com please remove the spaces in between before you use the address please .

if you have time, please review. Thank you.


	6. Aftermath

alrighty then, here's the new chapter. uh..thats all

this chapter and several others will be reminiscent of daneel rush's current work "Gospel". i was planning to use the computer searching thingy too and then i read his "Gospel" fiction and that was like 'whoa'. so if you ever come across this, Daneel Rush, i hope i dont offend you by using the same idea. if so, i apologize.

to Jin the Wind Master: well, you're not completely correct. this story was mostly inspired by my interest in daneel rush's work, which, in retrospect, is an Alice/Takato. thx for your review, though, it was nice to receive another review.

although i would have liked to reach 30 reviews before i began this chapter...owell

unfortunately...no one guessed the name of any of the Order's names, though only one person tried. good effort though, though not even close. just note, all of the order made their appearance and left an impression, a lasting impression from season 01-03.

note: Takato won't reveal his feelings towards Alice until later on. if you wait, you'll get a special surprise :p

text remains the same as last chapter: 'blah' is a thought, "blah" speech, '''blah''' bio-merge thoughts/inner speech during biomerge

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or any related titles. I hold no ownership to any franchised names that may and will appear in this fiction

and yes, i made a mistake in the last chapter's title, i accidentally put III when it's still Part II, sorry bout that.

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**Part II, Introduction to the Chaos Chapter 3**

**...Welcome to Central Hub of Digital Intelligence; CHDI**

**.../F:Command: Search: Matsuki, Takato**

**Processing Search...Would you like related articles displayed?**

**/R: Yes**

**...Processing...File may be corrupted, do you wish to continue?**

**/R: Yes**

**Displaying all related searches to: Matsuki, Takato**

**(McCoy, Alice) (Guilmon) (BlackGuilmon) (Megidramon)...**

and continued on...

**/F:Command: Specific Search: Display most related to Matsuki, Takato**

**Processing command...Displaying:**

**(McCoy, Alice) (Guilmon) (BlackGuilmon) (Megidramon) (Matsuki, Takato)**

**/F:Command: Open file 'Matsuki, Takato'**

**Opening file...Displaying contents**

**Matsuki, Takato: Age is currently unknown. Responsible for defeat of Data-Reaper. Associated with McCoy, Alice. Digimon Partner: Guilmon/BlackGuilmon. Bio-Merged Form: Gallantmon/Chaos Gallantmon. Day of Birth: unknown. Parents: None**

**Data last modified: 2010, November 17**

"Damnit! Where's that stupid info I need? Piece of shit database!"

**/F:Command: Search: Matsuki, Takato: Day of Deletion**

**Processing...**

**Matsuki, Takato: Day of Deletion: XXXXXXXXX**

**Error, Virus detected...Quarantining...Deleting corrupted file**

"What the fuck! Stupid database! Don't delete the god damned file!"

All that was left on the screen was a glowing symbol...

**Takato's P.O.V.**

I got home in pretty bad spirits. BlackGuilmon and I were almost beaten if that guy hadn't stepped in. We still had no idea who he was or who he worked for. That and BlackGuilmon was feeling hungry...again. We were home in a matter of minutes, though I didn't see Alice anywhere. 'No, wait. The water's running, must be taking a shower.' Right now, I just wanted to fall asleep. I sat down on the sofa and closed my eyes for a while.

'What am I going to tell Alice? "We're alright, Alice. By the way, did you know we have a new enemy to worry about?". That's just stupid...meh'

I vaguely heard the water turn off as I drifted off to a light sleep. The sleep was nice, it was the dream that scared me. A figure cloaked in shadows...large wings...narrowed, red eyes, all of them staring at me. The figure drew a few symbols...and fired an attack through them...and I awoke sweating and breathing heavily as though the force of the attack had carried through the dream to the Real World.

I couldn't help but look around as though the figure might be hiding in the shadows behind me. I was momentarily distracted as the door to the bathroom opened...to reveal Alice, though...she looked...beautiful, there's no other way to put it, just...beautiful. She was wearing nothing but a white bathrobe and her hair, much longer than I remembered, was not held up in ponytails but hanging loosely and framed her face. Her hair was still wet and caught the light effortlessly as it swished from side to side. Unfortunately, Alice caught me staring. "What are you looking at?" I oggled back at her, feeling spittle collecting near the corners of my mouth..and quickly swallowed. "Nothing, nothing...I've just never seen you with your hair down...it's, uh, a nice change.", I replied, blushing. Unfortunately, there were no dark shadows to hide my blush this time around.

"...is there something you want to tell me?"

"No! Uh, nothing at all, I'm fine..."

"You know that if you need to talk to someone, I'm here right?", with that said, she took the seat next to mine and picked up BlackGigimon, who fell asleep as well. "Is there something you need to get off your chest? Any problems? Remember, you sent to me to find help, so ask for it."

And so I asked for it. "I don't really know what to do now, BlackGuilmon and I were almost beaten by that guy who attacked the city. We only made it out because that other guy deleted him. He seemed to be even stronger and he's still just a lackey...what are we going to do?"

"You've only got a confidence problem. That's easy to fix. Just believe in yourself, just like you always do." Alice looked down a bit and her eyes grew a bit dim, and yet full of light. She was thinking about a past event, that much I could gather.

We spent the rest of the day refurnishing the small house and had a light dinner together. After that, we went to sleep. I felt alot better...until I realized I had a 'date' with Rika Nonaka the next day. I'm not sure if I slept at all that night.

**Sunday, Takato and Rika's 'Outting'**

The next morning, I found myself picking out clothes to wear to the meeting with Rika. I barely noticed what I was doing until I began to stuff a sock on my head thinking it was a hat. BlackGigimon was in the other room with Alice, sleeping. I sighed and put the correct clothing on the correct body part. Today was just an orange long-sleeved shirt, blue vest, and a pair of slightly old jeans. I ditched the glasses and of course my goggles, feeling a slight pang as I did so. I went into the kitchen to see Alice there, her hair still not in it's ponytails I noticed. I must have looked worried.

"There something wrong?", Alice asked. I bleakly looked up at her, going a little red in the face, "Uh...I have a...an outting with Rika today...". With that, I looked away for a sec'. I looked back at Alice and saw an emotion in there I've never seen before...was it jealousy? She did look a bit angry or dis-spirited, or was I imagining it? "Oh...well..." "Yea?" "...Nothing, just go and...have fun..."

'Fun...right', was my thought while leaving the house. The set time to meet Rika was 1 o'clock p.m., I was an hour early so I decided to sit on a bench outside the restaurant and tried to get a little rest. I think I drifted off.

**One Hour Later...**

'Why is it so warm? Why does it feel like there's someone leaning on me? Why do I feel someone's breath on my neck? Why am I asking myself these questions when I can just look?' And look I did. I saw Rika to my left, apparently asleep, apparently leaning on my shoulder, apparently dangerously close to my neck, apparently enjoying the sensation.

"Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" I jump a little off the seat, jerking Rika back to join the awake in the Real World. She didn't wait for a preamble...and hit me across the face before realizing that it was me. "Oh! Kay, I'm so sorry!" "I-fye..." which meant 'I'm fine'. After being revived, Rika dragged me into the restaurant, ironically being the same place Alice and I had our late lunch yesterday.

Ironically, she ordered the same thing we had the other day. Ironically in the same fashion Alice did; without consulting my opinion. "What was up with that card battle at the expo? Why did you want to challenge me?" I sighed, I knew this was coming, "Because, you guys...were my idols. I felt like, to measure up, I had to best someone at something." "We...'were' your idols? What do you mean 'were'?" I braced myself, "I know there was another Tamer, a good person too. A damned good person, and you abandoned him after the D-Reaper incident without a second thought, without a good reason."

Rika was fuming, I could swear I saw her spiked ponytail wavering like flames as her face turned red. I think I saw steam coming out of her ears. "Matsuki? Takato Matsuki! What are you bringing that bastard up for! And how do you know about him!"

I stared hard at her for a moment, "I know about him because I watched all your battles in person, not what the news showed, the altered tapes that cut out Takato. And I'm bringing him up because he was my role model, a good person. You guys hate him for no good reason. What did he ever do to you!"

"He!...He..", Rika faltered in her comeback. I could see her face screwed up as if she were confused. "I...don't know..Why do I hate him? I feel like I just do."

I began to give a small smile to myself, it was working, a plan was actually working! Too bad this was only the threshold of the plan, the worst was yet to come. "Think about it, Rika. Think about all the times you've spent with him. Think about how he made you feel. Think about the changes he brought. Think about why." With that, I left my share of the check on the table and left the restaurant with a small wave to Rika.

When I almost reached home, a slim, tall figure stopped me. 'Yellow fur? Purple gloves? Renamon?' Renamon indeed. She was looking at me in a most disturbing fashion, as in 'I'll kill you if I don't hear what I want to hear' fashion. "Who are you, child?" I nervously looked up at Renamon, just now realizing how tall she was. The plan of Rebirth didn't really include converting the Digimon back, we figured after the Tamers were back to normal, so would the Digimon. "Uh...nobody?". Obviously, she didn't like my answer. An arm flashed out, grabbed my collar, and slammed me into the nearest tree. My only thought was, 'Oh dear god, I'm gonna die.'. I probably would have if, "Renamon, stop!", that happened. I dared to sneak a peak and saw Renamon's fist an inch from my face and saw Rika looking distressed a few feet to my left. Renamon shot me a glare and phased next to Rika. Rika gave a small glance my way and left with a, "I'll see you tomorrow at school, Kay...", which left me feeling incredibly stupid. There's just too much to deal with when you're me. Shaking my head, I walked home.

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ok, Imma be working on making my chapters longer. this one only seems longer cuz the many spaces in between the commands and responses in the information search. and in case you're wondering, yes, that scene takes place in the far future. events will unravel as time goes on.

and yet...not even 30 reviews...cries

and, still, no one has guessed, or even tried to, the Order's members. guess the end will remain a mystery until the end. no sneak previews...boo

well, i hope you (the readers) have enjoyed this chapter. criticism, as always, is welcome, both helpful and hateful.


	7. Memories

yes yes, youre all dissapointed, as am i. surprisingly, im at a standstill as to where to go from here. im looking for books on mythology and looking up biblical references as well, taking up lots of time.

well, yea, congrats, someone did finally figure out one member and got his/her preview (identity lock haha). although i personally think the preview sucked.

speech is same as always

oh, and you guys, i appreciate reviews and all, but sentence fragments, one-liners, and reviews that dont really take into account the view of the story are received with a lukewarm welcome. not that im being picky but such lukewarm responses to my story dont really encourage me.

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon. But I DO own Hyou and Agudramon and his evolutions...MINE

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**Part II, Introduction to the Chaos Chapter 4**

**In the Rain of Memories**

**...Hacking into Employee Database...Accessing profile: Kim, Hyou Shou**

**Kim, Hyou Shou:**

**Date of Birth: 11/24/88. An orphan who was adopted by a prestigious family at the age of 13. Received Digimon parter, Agudramon, at age of 15 during a business meeting in West Shinjuku, Japan. Biological parents are unknown and all other relations unknown. At the age of 16, he met McCoy, Alice who was at the age of 17 after Matsuki, Takato's death/deletion. Ever since then, Kim, Hyou has been McCoy, Alice's sole emotional support.**

**/F:Select: death/deletion: open file**

**File path: death/deletion corrupted. Protective virus detected, suggested action, delete file.**

**/F:Command: File Transfer: move file death/deletion to directory "HYPNOS"**

**...File Transfer complete**

"Well, we should be able to work on the file now. Don't worry, Alice, we'll crack the code and save your, 'ahem', boyfriend," the stranger said. A pair of cold blue eyes flashed dangerously at the stranger. "Watch yourself, you might be helping us, but that doesn't mean I still won't kick you around every now and then," with a cold but thankful smile. A pair of brown eyes flashed in Alice's direction with a smirk, "What would Takato say if he saw you today, eh? Something like, "Eh, Alice, did you take on Rika's hardcore attitude?"." "Shut up, Hyou."

**Present time; Takato's P.O.V.**

'Whoa, what a weird dream, something about some guy with some girl...damn, the dream's fading fast.' "I'm so damn ti-ti-ti-aaaaahhhhh...tired." I said in the middle of a yawn. Sunlight was streaming in through the window, illuminating my small but quaint room. I spotted BlackGigimon on my bed, drooling a little as his little legs were wagging as if chasing something. "Wait, bread, BlackGigimon just want to eat you..." 'Typical', I thought, shaking my head in a bemused way. I picked up a towel and a change of clothes and headed for the bathroom, mentally preparing myself for another day of school. "Man, I hate Mondays."

**30 Minutes Later...**

"Late late late!" A few people were staring at me in confusion, but to hell with them, I'm late! I intended to get to school early but failed to gauge my time correctly and had to rush out of the house waving goodbye to Alice and BlackGigimon while stuffing an apple into my mouth. 'I guess old habits die hard...Who came up with that saying anyway?'

I rushed to my homeroom which was unfortunately on the third floor. I rushed to the door and got in just as the bell rang and rushed to my seat, exhausted. Ms. Nagata didn't neglect to see I had just barely arrived on time. "Mr. Hiroshi, I see we were late this morning. Since this is only your second day I guess I'll let you off with a warning. Will we try harder to get here on time?" 'We? Who's we?' was my thought while answering regretfully, "Yes, Ms. Nagata..." And so began my amazing day at school...

During Ms. Nagata's lecture, I noticed that Henry and Rika were sharing glances and looking pointedly at me every now and then. All of a sudden, a note flew out of nowhere and landed on my notes. Henry looked at me in the eye and sharply nodded. Getting the message, I opened the note with a short sentence scribbled on it, 'Meet us near the patio area at lunch.' I sighed slightly, 'This is an interesting turn of events...'.

Next class was Chemistry, a subject I absolutely abhor, more so than usual seeing as I had to share lab stations with Jeri Katou. Jeri looked at me in the same peculiar fashion Rika and Henry did. 'Did Rika blab to all the Tamers?' "How do you know so much about Takato?" I shook my head and looked around. "I said, 'How do you know so much about Takato?' " Oh, it was Jeri. Somehow, she's acting differently than she did on Monday...why the interest in Taka-me all of a sudden. "Why do you need to know?" "Takato is an evil person, that's why. We wouldn't abandon him without good reason." "That's what you think..." I muttered.

At the 15 minute break, I went to my locker to pick up my books for the next class and to send a message to Azulongmon on my GPS that the mission might be in jeapordy because the Tamers were getting too curious too fast. 'But I guess that's partly my fault as well. I had to get all dramatic...How many times did Azulongmon tell me not to let emotions spoil the mission?' My GPS beeped, 'Don't let your emotions interfere, this mission is for your sake and ours. -Azulongmon' "Figures." "What figures?"

I looked behind me and saw Rika standing there, hands on her hips, looking as though she regained her icy posture. "You'd better show up and 'fess up during lunch, or I'm gonna pound you. No matter how cute you are." As soon as she walked away, I shook my head, thinking how wrong that last sentence was. The fact that Rika liked me was flattering but the entire idea was wrong. Besides, I like Alice and...'Way to go Matsuki, keep thinking like this and everyone will think you're a pervert.'

I wonder why there's a Spanish 101 class in Japan. I mean, we're not gonna be needing to be speaking Spanish any time soon. Especially considering Spanish people don't take many trips to Shinjuku, Japan. Well, at least the questions stopped coming...for the time being anyway. Algebra II, without a hitch. Although lunch period finally made its entrance. I took my lunch tray and walked over to the the patio area where I could see the Tamers looking at me expectantly. As soon as I got there, I was forced to drop the tray wasting about a dollar and fifty cents as I had to fend off the Tamers from flooding me.

"You, explain yourself. What do you know about Takato and how do you know about him at all?" is what Henry asked me. Along with another few minutes of questions from each of the Tamers...other than Jeri...is there something wrong? She's being awefully quiet even though she seemed really intent on finding out about me... After explaining to them the same way I did to Rika, they pondered on the subject. I conveniently left out the last part I mentioned to Rika, about asking why they hate him...er, me. If they got all riled up from a story from Rika, then they'll probably find out too soon and murder me without thinking about it if I said it myself.

"Well...alright, for now you're off the hook. But don't think you're in the clear just yet, we'll keep tabs on you." is as close a threat I would get from Henry. He looked like he had more to say but was interrupted as everyone's D-Arc began beeping. I noticed that Jeri's D-Arc began beeping too...but why? Leomon was gone, dead, deleted, whatever. Even with the bent timeline, Azulongmon told us that Leomon was gone, possibly for good. D-Arcs only respond when the person who owns it has a partner. If not, a D-Arc would be a useless artifact. I had no more time to wonder on that as all the Tamers raced off towards where their compasses were pointing. Apparently, Digimon Taming has become a valid job. I grabbed my cell and ran in the other direction, dialing Alice's number on the way.

**With Alice...**

'Ring...ring...ring...' "Huh?...Takato...Takato, what's wrong?" Takato's panicked voice came in from the speaker very faintly, as if his phone were upside-down. "Takato, turn your cell upright." "Huh? What are you-Oh...sorry. But I need you to get BlackGigimon and my D-Arc to the park near my school A.S.A.P. Apparently there's a bio-emerging Digimon and I'm gonna go after it." "I understand," I snapped my phone shut, "BlackGigimon, Takato needs you. Let's go."

"Alright! Let's go help Takatomon!" BlackGigimon jumped into my purse and I began my run towards the High School which was thankfully only a few blocks away, I'm a rather delicate person. After a few minutes, Takato came into my field of view. "Taka-I mean, Kaya!" Takato turned around, unaware I had nearly exposed him, "Catch!" I tossed his D-Arc and he deftly caught it shouting a "Thanks, Alice!" and a "Let's go BlackGigimon!" I merely waved goodbye to him and turned around. I still had my shopping to finish.

**Back to Takato**

After consulting my D-Arc, I confirmed that the Digimon was to the east, "Why always the east?" BlackGuilmon, meanwhile, was carrying me and running as fast as he could sniffing the air everynow and then. He stopped suddenly throwing me off and making me tumble a few more feet ahead, "Tamers ahead, Takatomon. About...one block ahead." "Thanks for the-ow-warning, boy." "No problem, Takatomon." "You ready to fight, boy? Since Tamers are here, we have to use our biomerged form." "Ready! Let's beat this guy together, whoever he is."

"Biomerge Activate!"

**Biomerge Digivolution**

I held my breath on impulse as BlackGuilmon and I began to merge, our digital code intertwining together as our bodies became one, boosting strength to levels beyond whatever limits nature had set for digital beings. A dark blue cape flowed from our shoulders, covering our body. Our golden eyes shining fiercely and proudly. "Let's kick some digital butt!" and jumped onto the nearby building to observe the battle.

The Tamers were biomerged as well and fighting against a...wait, that can't be right? Three biomerged digimon, one mega, one ultimate, and a champion...all fighting and _losing_ to a "MetalGreymon?" Our eyes narrowed, "Must be another one of the Order, man they are becoming a royal pain in the ass." I saw MegaGargomon and Sakuyamon go down, barely keeping their digivolved state intact. '''We're going down there and helping them now.''' With that we jumped from our precarious perch with our right fist clenched tight.

**Sakuyamon's P.O.V.**

'''This MetalGreymon is a damn pain in the ass. I can't believe he's beating us all by himself.''' '''You're telling me, Rika. This is a disgraceful battle, we don't stand a chance.''' '''Hmph, since when has that ever stopped us?''' With that, Renamon and I, as Sakuyamon, struggled to our feet only to be blown away again by what seemed to be a large bullet about our size strike MetalGreymon in the back, plowing him into the ground.

A dark figure stumbled a bit and jumped away from the crater. I waited for the shadows to disappear off his face...but then I realized, 'He is the shadow...'

"ChaosGallantmon!"


	8. The Cruel Beginning

im not feeling the love here people...T-T

lol, i kinda hoped last chapter would have received about 10 reviews, but i noticed i received...NONE? o the inhumanity! the obscene! the...i've run out of SAT words to use...

well, when we last left off, ChaosGallantmon entered the fray with the Tamers against a rogue MetalGreymon (didnt see that coming did 'ja guys). so what the hell is going on and how will the plot thicken with the impending mystery of Kaya and ChaosGallantmon?

Speech is the same as always.

Disclaimer: I hold no rights over Digimon other than the fact that I can imagine and write up stuff.

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**Part III, End the Introduction to the Chaos; Enter the Reign of Chaos**

**Chapter 5**

**True Colors, Pt. 1**

**"...Are you absolutely sure we should do this right now? It's a bit too early for this stage of planning isn't it?"**

**"Yes and no, even if the data doesn't come through, we're eventually going to test the program anyway. So why not sooner?...Unless..you're afraid?"**

**A snicker was followed by those words also followed by a noise of dissent.**

**"Alright! Just shut up and let's do this thing already, I have better things to do."**

**"Like..."**

**"..."**

**"..."**

**"Nevermind...just warm up the machine and begin the program, Yamaki."**

**Biomerge Digivolution**

**Agudramon Biomerge to...Versaillemon**

**"Step into the chamber and relax, this'll take a while to upload into your data."**

**"...This isn't going to hurt is it?"**

**"...Of course not..."**

**"...Saddist..."**

**Present time, Eastern Shinjuku; Ruki's P.O.V.**

Renamon and I, as Sakuyamon, struggled to our feet only to be blown away again by what seemed to be a large bullet about our size strike MetalGreymon in the back, plowing him into the ground.

A dark figure stumbled a bit and jumped away from the crater. I waited for the shadows to disappear off his face...but then I realized, 'He is the shadow...'

"ChaosGallantmon!"

The black knight just nodded in recognition of us, "Don't let your guard down! Just because I'm here doesn't mean this will necessarily be any easier."

Mumbling obscenities, we got to our feet and got into a defensive stance. ChaosGallantmon was right, even being flattened from a high aerial assault, that MetalGreymon came out without a scratch, though he did look a bit ticked off and a bit dusty.

"Gigi Blaster!"

Oh the perks of being me, or rather, being Sakuyamon. "Crystal Sphere!" A protective barrier formed around our group and we lazily waited for the attack to impact the barrier.

**Takato's P.O.V.**

I saw what Sakuyamon was about to do. Typical of her to be so overconfident that she failed to remember that an Ultimate level digimon had been kicking their collective asses just a minute before.

A split second before the barrier formed, BlackGuilmon and I, as ChaosGallantmon, jumped out of the area.

"Fools! Have you forgotten MetalGreymon's strength! He'll rip through that barrier like wrapping paper!"

They got the message a little too late, or rather Sakuyamon got the message a little too late. As predicted, it was as though the barrier had never been there. MetalGreymon's Gigi Blaster attack flew on, leaving two missile-sized holes in the barrier, as if nothing had been done against it.

Of course it would have been easy to dodge the attack, or it _should_ have been, but Sakuyamon's Crystal Sphere prevented anything from getting out as well as _almost_ anything getting in. They never stood a chance.

The explosion rocked the city's foundation and even had enough strength beyond its diameter to at least singe my armour. As expected, this enemy was abnormally strong, obviously because of that weird power source I had felt during my battle against BlackSkullGreymon a few days ago.

I watched serenely as the Tamers and their digimon sailed by and overhead and prepared myself. As much as I hated to destroy one of my idol digimon, I was prepared to do my worst if necessary.

Lance and shield at my side, I walked towards the awaiting mass of flesh and metal. For a while, all MetalGreymon and I did was stare each other down, as if daring each other to make a move. We both grew tired after a minute or two and attacked at the same time.

"Metal Claw!"

"Demon's Disaster!"

The sound of metal on metal acted like a stimulant, urging me to battle even harder, making me determined to enjoy this. I jumped into the air, all the while pouring energy into the Gorgon for a massive assault. When I reached the pinnacle of the jump, I pointed the Gorgon at MetalGreymon, who, if I were less preoccupied I would have noticed, stood there passively.

"Judecca Prison!"

Instead of reapeating the mistake we had made with BlackSkullGreymon, we spread the attack into a blast rather than a spear, 'Just like that guy said...' I thought with a grimace. The attack cut through the air like a knife, promising much pain to the recipient...and yet MetalGreymon still stood there, although it looked as though he tensed up a bit.

When the attack impacted, I didn't expect what happened next.

"Did you know, it's much more difficult to dodge in midair?"

We spun around quickly to see MetalGreymon airborn behind us, calmly flapping his mutilated purple wings. 'But he can't fly with those wings!'

"Fire Blast!"

The incredulity only gave us time to have one thought, 'He can't do that either! That's DarkTyrannomon's attack!'

Our cape in ruins, we fell and hit the ground hard. We didn't have time to rest either as a slight whistling sound caught our attention. MetalGreymon apparently wanted to play trampolene, the only problem: we were the trampolene. We quickly rolled out of the way and just as quickly brought up the lance.

"Demon's Disaster!"

The attack hit MetalGreymon dead on for sure this time. As if his roar of pain wasn't proof enough, bits of his chest plate began to crack and chip off from the force of the attack. Digging a nastly looking gough into the terrain, MetalGreymon kept grinding away for about 20 feet. Taking a slow intake of breath, we walked towards the monstrosity cautiously, still wary that he had been able to use data that did not belong to him.

When we finally reached him, we instantly began to collect energy into the Gorgon once more. We weren't ones to gloat, we had been taught that gloating is a sign of one's weakness, futility, and stupidity. Just when we collected an enormous amount of energy, a funny thought occured to us, 'Wait...how could he be brought down by a single attack when he easily defeated four Megas? Unless-'

**BANG**

I started to scream in pain, gripping my left arm and kneeling, cradling my arm. You can't blame me, MetalGreymon had attacked our shield when it had reached its full energy potential and blew my arm off. All that was left was a stump of an arm slowly dissipating into data. Audible gasps could be heard from the Tamers and their Digimon.

Gritting my teeth in pain, we jumped back, warily watching MetalGreymon slowly stand up again. Well, at least that attack had also damaged him as well. Chunks of his armour had been blown off and the data from them was thick in air. I eased my breathing a bit and began to load the data, knowing I would need it to live out this battle. My arm's data began to stabalize a bit and the deleting slowed down.

I glared in the direction of MetalGreymon who hadn't taken advantage of my moment of weakness. That was his fatal mistake, ChaosGallantmon was powered mostly by fury, boy did I feel fury right now. I dashed off towards him and gave him a jab with my knee to the hollow behind his chin. MetalGreymon began to sputter and choke but I didn't bother giving him time to recover, I _was_ a dark knight after all, the hypocritical sense of honor white knights had didn't hold me back. I quickly formed my lance once more and I thrust it through his exposed neck.

It was an instant deletion, MetalGreymon didn't even give a cry of shock when I stabbed him. I quickly began to load the data and began to use the spare data to reform my deleted arm. Slowly, inch by inch, my arm began to grow back, nearly causing me to sob with joy. No one ever wants to see their arms being blown off.

I gave a tired sigh of relief, BlackGuilmon did as well.

That was when we were thrown into the beginnings of pandemonium.

We began to dedigivolve, though thankfully BlackGuilmon came out as BlackGigimon so he was unrecognizable. The last few things I heard were cries of shock and surprise and a voice calling out, "Kaya!", before I blacked out, BlackGigimon in my arms.

**Somewhere in the Sovereign's Holy Land**

Azulongmon gave a frustrated sigh. Of all the times for Takato to dedigivolve, he had to choose it when the most crucial part of his mission was to be handed to him. This part would need stealth and undetection, but Takato had just screwed everything up. Now that he had been exposed as ChaosGallantmon, this task would be even harder to complete.

Azulongmon closed off the window overlooking the human world of the Southern Quadrant. Screwed up or not, Takato would have to go through this mission no matter the cost, and the cost would be great.

"Goddramon help us...or rather help Takato."

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ok, here it is, the beginning of Part III. the title True Colors will become apparent soon enough. for those of you who might be waiting for the other main character to show up...deal with it. he'll be absent from my fic for a while.

meanwhile, i've only gotten one review to chapter 7 since i started writing this chapter. and it was not a very encouraging review at all. all it was was ,"go on". That is the most pathetic review I have EVER had the dissatisfaction of receiving...

anyway, just do something, dont leave me in the dust... ..


	9. Revelations

alright, chapter 9 or Rebirth coming up. This will be like...shocking to you guys...maybe? i dunno, im just as confused lol. anyway, the events you see during "True Colors" will not be the last you see of them. so watch carefully and think about stuff when you read this, im gonna get more philosophical now.

er, yea, im just adding another reviewer answer on the bottom, sorry, no new chapter just yet.

Speech: Same as always.

Disclaimer: I hold no claims over Digimon and/or its creations. Just the O.C.'s belong to me.

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**Part III, End the Introduction to the Chaos; Enter the Reign of Chaos**

**Chapter 6**

**True Colors Pt. 2**

**"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" A voice so obviously in pain echoed throughout all the numerous levels of the laboratory. **

**Next to the tube-like containment unit, a young woman winced as she witnessed the process of forced data absorbtion.**

**The contained being twitched in the greenish liquid, the wires connected to him cracking maliciously.**

**"Yamaki," the blond man with sunglasses turned towards the girl who spoke, "Isn't there a better way to do this? Can't someone else? Can't one of your people...?"**

**Yamaki gave a sigh, surprisingly sounding remorseful, "No one else would volunteer for it. Hyou willingly chose this path, he could just as easily have decided not to go through with it. Right now, he's the only link we have. He isn't just a shadow, he is who he is."**

**The girl stared at Yamaki oddly, "What do you mean, 'He isn't just a shadow'?"**

**Versaillemon gave another resounding scream as more and more data began to pour into him.**

**And Yamaki just smiled softly at the girl, "Alice, have you ever studied philosophy?"**

**The girl known as Alice simply shook her head, "I've never taken a liking to it."**

**Yamaki put his left arm around Alice and steered her towards the door, "Well, just let me give you a crash course then. After that...we'll see."**

**The two left the room whilst Versaillemon fell unconcious and continued to absorb the data.**

**Present Time, Nonaka Household, Free P.O.V.-**

Rumiko had never had male company in her home that didn't want to date her. So this was a first, a definitely odd first. Kaya seemed like any other boy she had seen walking down the road and yet Rika chose to openly like this boy. As to why Rika would like him...only Heaven knows. As for Rumiko...she was ecstatic that her daughter had finally attained the level of adulthood where she took an interest in the opposite sex. Oh how long she had been waiting for this moment.

"Oh Rika! May I have a word with you?" Rika glanced at her mother, apparently aware of what was about to happen with the 'conversation' between her mother and herself.

Rika grumbled and got up from Kaya's bedside, but not before making sure Renamon was around to watch for Kaya, and went over to the living room and plopped down onto the sofa.

'Mom has got that manic glint in her eye...I knew I should have let Braniac take Kaya and whatever his digimon is to his place 'stead of mine...'

Rika decided to cut her mother off before she got to her infamous one-mile-long-speech-about-the-birds-and-the-bees-and-how-to-apply-it-to-life.

"Listen, Mom, I know I brought a boy home but circumstances are not what you expected nor me so please don't get started about a future relationship that I may have with Kaya later on."

But Rumiko kept her almost evil glint in her eyes, "You said '-a future relationship that I may have-', oh Rika I'm so glad you're FINALLY growing up to be the woman I always knew you would!", and grabbed her daughter hard around the middle and delivered a bone crushing hug...followed by an ominous CRACK.

**Whilst with Takato or Kaya...**

"Oh man...I feel like my arm's been trampled over by the Dallas Cowboys entire All Star Team. And my head...feels like an army of gorillas paraded over it. Where am I?"

My eyes began to grow accustomed to the dark as I swept my head side to side. There, in the moonlight, was the form of Renamon, arms crossed, looking tall and haughty and composed as usual.

Renamon spoke, "You are currently in the home of my Tamer, Rika. She's in a...meeting right now but will be back shortly. _You_ on the other hand will not have the leisure of leaving even this room until questions have been answered. I'll be guarding the door."

And with that, she phased out of existance, presumably to the door or to where Rika is. It stayed pretty quiet until I heard a loud CRACK somewhere close to the room.

Next to me, BlackGigimon gave a snort and woke up, "Huh? Kayamon, where we at?"

"At Rika's house, boy. And this time...I don't think I want to be here. Listen, BlackGigimon, you have to promise you won't digivolve to any of your forms that are Rookie and above, do you understand? We can't afford to have the Tamers find out who we are." I lowered my voice to slightly below a low whisper while talking so anyone eavesdropping would have hard-of-hearing.

"Oh...Okie-Dokie.", and he fell asleep again.

"Man, I wish I could do that..."

"Do what, Kaya?"

My head snapped up quickly to see Rika and Renamon framed in the doorway, Rika rubbing her ribs and what I suppose is her spine from this angle. Rika sat down gingerly on the bed next to me and stared me full in the face, just inches away. She had a sad look in her eye which killed me. Whatever I did to her, I regretted it instantly.

"Kaya...why didn't you tell us? Or at least why didn't you tell me? We're Tamers too you know, we can keep a secret.", Rika's voice became softer and softer with each word. It made me want to kill myself and I'm sure Renamon wished the same...to kill or maim me. But I couldn't tell her truth, I just can't. The mission required being emotionless during the operation, I couldn't afford emotions of affection getting in the way of my mission.

"I...can't tell you. I'm sorry, Rika, I really am, but this is something I can't tell you. It's my secret."

Rika stayed silent for a minute or two and slowly pointed at BlackGigimon, "Then, can you at least explain about your digimon? And show me your D-Arc?"

I silently sighed in contentment, Rika could have asked dozens of difficult questions, but ones about BlackGigimon; piece of pie...er cake.

I reached out to my right hip and unclipped my D-Arc from my belt. I had no worries of Rika recognizing it because of the new form it had taken on during the Battle of the Gates of Hell in the Northern Quadrant, but that's a story for another day. Instead of the gold trim with runes decorating the edges, it was now red and blue; symbolic of the conflicted sides of Gallantmon and ChaosGallantmon with blue being the dominant color, or so Baihumon says. The circular button is now in a diamond shape that looks as though it had a crack down the middle. The rims surrounding the screen now held ancient rune-like designs of the Sovereigns of Ancient Past, four in a cross-shaped pattern, one for each point of the compass. Other than that, it looks pretty much the same.

Rika took the D-Arc from my hand and began to examine it. While she did that, I decided to get on with my rehearsed alibi,

"Alright, first of all, you should know my partner's name is BlackGigimon. He's a special little guy, almost like a Calumon. He just doesn't induce premature evolution. He's more like the vessel of the Sovereign's external power. Please, let me finish."

Rika looked as though she was about to interrupt during the middle of my speech but that stopped her. Rika mutely nodded and I carried on.

"BlackGigimon...is based off of a very special digimon you Tamers once met. Who the digimon is is classified intel. Anyway, BlackGigimon is incapable of going beyond the In-Training level and yet still holds the immense power of Bio-Merge Digivolution. This is so because, as I've said earlier, he is the manifestation of the Sovereign's external power. The Sovereigns are bound to where they live but by no means is their power bound. So BlackGigimon was created but suffered due to a massive electromagnetic-pulse that occured in the year 2000. Therefore, his intelligence was limited and was found to be completely dependant on another source of energy to reach any of the higher levels. His purpose in his life couldn't be reached if he couldn't get to higher levels so the Sovereigns decided to give BlackGigimon a partner, much to Zhuqiamon's displeasure. I was chosen to help him fulfill his mission in life."

I took in a deep breath, this speech, though informative and fabricated, is incredibly long.

"I was just a regular kid, brought up by a family friend 'cuz my family...Anyway, I received BlackGigimon around the time when you guys were fighting the D-Reaper. I was in Tokyo at the time and the Sovereigns thought that would be a safe spot for BlackGigimon to rendezvous with me. Of course, I had no idea he was coming so I was freaked out. After BlackGigimon came to me, I was informed it was so because my family friend worked with digital information extensively before and she had taught me some things that would be helpful in balancing out the malfunctions that occured within BlackGigimon. So after all that, the Sovereigns told me I was chosen to receive BlackGigimon for a reason so I decided to do my best for them. And, no, I will not and cannot reveal what that reason is. And that is the end of the origins of BlackGigimon."

I felt like giving a bow, that speech was such a bother to learn. Rika was just absentmindedly rubbing her ribs and Renamon was, as far as I can tell, outside the door listening to every word I've said.

Rika spoke after a few seconds.

"Alright, Kaya, those answers will do for tonight, tomorrow, you're going to tell ALL the Tamers and answer MORE questions. I'm going to bed, it's almost midnight..."

"..."

"...Goodnight, Kaya, BlackGigimon."

With that said, Rika left the room quietly. I looked down to my side where BlackGigimon was snoring up a storm and gently caressed his head.

'It really sucks having to live a feigned existence like this. If you could understand what I just said, I'm sure you would agree, eh, BlackGigimon?'

An almost silent beep came from my backpocket. I reached in and pulled out the GPS Azulongmon had given me. On it was a message that made me growl and glare for two reasons.

_Takato;_

_The next phase of your mission has begun. You remember the talk we had a month before you were deployed? Just follow our directions closely and you will be fine. If something is out of line...you will be in even greater danger than you should be in._

_Also, Alice will be reporting back to the Digital World about you and what she has observed. Know this, Takato, you will probably never see Alice ever again after tonight. She will not be joining you, she has other business to attend to now._

_Remember: Your Mission: ..._

_**Delete the Tamers and their Digimon**_

I began to make incoherent noises and paced around the small room.

'First they want me to delete my friends and their digimon but now they want to take Alice away from me!'

"It's not fair! Why do you have to take Alice from me!"

"...You know, I might have to report this 'small' act of outrage to Azulongmon."

I turned around quickly to see Alice sitting contentedly on the window-sill. All she wore were her pajamas and a jacket, hair still not done in its usual ponytails. Her legs were crossed and she wore a slightly amused look on her usually emotionless face, although rather small and almost unnoticeable.

"Come on 'Kaya', let's get you home."

With that said, he jumped off the window and waited as I collected my meager possessions. Soon after, with BlackGigimon tucked under my arm and my D-Arc safely clipped on my belt, I jumped down, but not so gracefully as Alice had.

Alice somehow opened a portal in thin air. I turned to stare at her.

"How did you do that?"

"...Trade secret..."

"Uh-huh..."

Alice and I stepped into the portal, though I stepped in with trepidation. A swooping sensation was felt around my navel which disappeared in a second as we found ourselves in front of our home. When we reached the hallway after going in, Alice suddenly stopped walking.

"Alice, something the matter?"

"...Why...were you so...upset about me being sent away from here?"

My body suddenly felt as though the temperature dropped and suddenly shot back up. I began to stutter and make incoherent words and phrases all the while waving my hands around like a maniac.

"...Uh-huh...well...goodnight, Takato..."

"...Goodnight...Alice..."

As I made the turn for my room, I began to wonder, 'Why did I get so upset over Alice having to leave? What's going on with me? Why do I feel like I'm being torn in two?'

But in remembering that, I also remembered the task that was set for me; I had to delete my former friends. I crawled into bed, silently shedding tears, hating whatever higher entity was forcing this to happen.

"Why does this keep happening to me..."

I closed my tired eyes and cried myself to sleep.

**READ THE AUTHOR'S NOTE ABOUT THE ALICE THING I MENTIONED.**

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**Author's Note:** I know it says that Takato will probably never see Alice again, but Alice will have her own side-story near the end, and you'll see bits of Alice-type information where I usually type what goes on in the future occasionally. Takato meets Alice before the final confrontation where he and the main evil dude duke it out.

and a response to my recent reviewer:

dan: erm...well, actually it took me quite a while to post chapter 8 up. the delay between chap7 and chap8 was quite elongated. so plenty of opportunities lol. but i guess i cant blame you either.

Xenos: well...what in the HELL have you been smoking? I havn't not updated for two years sweatdrops. It's only been a month or two between chapter 7 and chapter 8...im sorry but let me reiterate...WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN SMOKING? cuz i really want to get what you smoked grins. anyway, if this is just a misunderstanding, i apologize, but still...whats the name of the drug and where do you get it...shifty eyes


	10. Author's Note

well, now im just adding a reader's review response (RRR for future reference)

and i'm only doing this cuz i really like this person (big grin), my faithful reviewer, thank you...at the WAY bottom please.

and also...the link to Memory Shrine was erased for some reason, so I shall attempt to put it there again ..

sorry guys, this isnt a chapter, this is an Author's Note as you may well tell by now.

Now that school has officially started, I will have less and less time to focus on my fanfiction writing days as my Senior Year begins to take it's toll on my personal life. 2 Math classes is a real upheaval in my schedule...a very bad upheaval...evil (in case i used "upheaval" incorrectly).

Sorry about this spring of bad news but, please, don't worry too much. I've been studying mythology and philosophy some, so I suppose you may expect much more...intuitive chapters in the future. To my loyal reviewers (I bow to you), thanks for keeping up with me so far. It'll pay off in the long run...I really pray it does so as I will not have my throat ripped out...

Anyway, I can give you a synopsis of the rest of "True Colors": As you already know, Takato has been assigned to delete the Tamers and their Digimon and that Alice has now been "re-assigned" to another "post" elsewhere. Takato's first victim: Nonaka, Rika and Renamon. Oh yes, you can taste the feelings of betrayal and rage and accumulating sadness and suspicion. Takato will get caught in the act sometime around his second attempted "assassination" or so and will become "Public Enemy Number One" and said to have revealed his "True Colors". Understand the Sub-Title of my story now? Anyway, even after the "assassinations" of the Tamers, this will definitely NOT be the last time you see them. Oh no, they play a HUGELY-GINORMOUS part in the final act of my finest work of fiction to date...although that HUGELY-GINORMOUS part is fairly short, it is still VERY important. And the final battle...well wait for the villain to show up, then make all the "Oohs" and "Aahs" you would care for.

Oh yes, Alice's side story...there have been a lot of rumours circulating about the origins of Alice during the time when she first appeared in Digimon Season 03 and mysteriously disappeared, the only clue to who she is was a picture of her held by Dolphin during the D-Reaper's assault of Shinjuku. I'll be expanding upon one particular rumour I have learned off thanks to the AWESOME Memory Shrine; a shrine dedicated to one of my favorite Digimon characters...McCoy, Alice! Go visit it for other great Alice fics and very informative info on Alice and other rumours and theories of Alice. Well the link will be put up soon...like now. if the symbols are gone...just go to Google or Yahoo Search Engines and type in "Memory Shrine" and click on the one that says it has Alice info on it. Or the one that has the link that says words that I pasted up there for the link lol. oh yes, the link has the word "nanashi" in it, just in case this stupid thing screws up again...

And, if any of you were wondering about the new D-Arc Takato has, I will be elaborating on "The Battle of the Gates of Hell". More specifically, Takato's three year Sub-Story of his adventures in the Northern Quadrant along-side Alice. His training adventures, inadvertant battles with the bad guys of the North, and the destruction of Takato's Gold D-Arc and the birth of the Lapis Lazuli; Takato's new D-Arc. Oh yea, if you were wondering what Lapis Lazuli is:

**Lapis Lazuli**: in the Sumerian fable of "Gilgamesh", there is a prologue to the main story that speaks of a Great Flood that wiped out all of mankind (much like the story of Noah's Ark which may play another BIG part in the end of my story). One man, his family, and the seed of all creatures of Earth were saved when one god decided to spare him from the wrath of the other gods. But back to "Lapis Lazuli"; the great and beautiful god, Ishtar, wept over the destruction of mankind and was overjoyed to find that one had survived. The other gods felt remorseful as well about wiping them all out. Utnapishtim, the only man, along with his family and the animals, survived and he was given Ishtar's necklace, made by the god Anu, as a remembrance of the great sacrifice that Utnapishtim had made.

How does this relate to the new D-Arc you may ask? It is a constant reminder of the battle between Takato's personalities; Light and Dark, Holiness and Chaos, Gallantmon and ChaosGallantmon. A constant reminder that Takato has to keep his emotions in check and as balanced as he possibly can. And the Gates of Hell...weeeeelllll...we'll cross that bridge when we get to it shall we? (Smiles)

So there you have it, my Author's Note, which counts as my apology and a making up to you guys.

So if you stay to this story...I will be indebted to you forever (bows once more).

Soo...farewell for a few months or so...

**Reader's Review Response (RRR)**

Heroine of the Valley:

First of all, let me say thanks for staying with me so far, next to Dark Qiviut, you are my most favorite reviewer :P. I still have yet to make good on my promise to review for all your chapters as of yet, but I'm trying. I promise to update in a while, but don't get your hopes up for a quick update once my deadline is over either, Chapters will have a SERIOUS effort to be longer, not the lukewarm things I've done so far...ahem.

And for the record; Yes, Lapis Lazuli also happens to be a semi-precious blue gemstone, which, unless I'm terribly mistaken, I believe to also be a Birth Stone. Anyway, the Lapis Lazuli fits very snugly into my work of fiction as a whole; including "Rebirth" and the "Gates of Hell" Arc that will premiere soon after "Rebirth" is completed. Also, Lapis Lazuli's color scheme fits very snugly into my whole, "ChaosGallantmon is the dominant side of Takato" thing.

So, once again, thank you for your reviews and the chance to give away the MFRA again, lol. I'd give you a preview as I've done to **blank**, but then, he/she got it because he/she guessed a crucial member of the Order. Anyway, I look forward to when I'll burn my keyboard of all of its keys once more to type another exciting/dull episode of "Rebirth".


	11. Good Byes Begin

wee, I get to write for a while before school really gets underway. so yea, i'll be attempting to make my chapters longer from now on. and, unfortunately, the mythology stuff I came up with has a fatal flaw in it: it can only be truly utilized in the End, so sorry. the philosophy junk can still be used some though

this'll just a small treat that lasts for...whenever this gets posted up.

well, last time, we got off when Takato and Alice went back home from Rika's and Takato was told that he would have to kill/delete the Tamers and the Digimon and that Alice would be leaving for the Digital World and that he'll probably never see her again. Ooooh, a parody :P, well, enjoy

Speech...same as always

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon but I do own Hyou, Agudramon, and Versaillemon, and all other evolutions concerning Agudramon, nor do I own the book series, The Chronicles of Narnia nor it's seventh installation.

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**Part III, End the Introduction to the Chaos, Enter the Reign of Chaos**

**Chapter 7**

**True Colors Pt. 3**

**Footsteps echoed in the empty hallway in the newly made HYPNOS headquarters, one pair of footsteps belonging to a person who wore high heels and the other what seemed to be comfortable loafers.**

**"...So what you're saying is...you believe in this philosophy that states we are living shadows of who we truly are? And, also, that the time period we are currently in has already been played out in a never-ending cycle?"**

**"Yes, yes I do, Alice."**

**"...You're a freak, Yamaki. You're also the last person I would have thought would believe in something like we're just shadows that are unimportant."**

**"You misunderstood me, Alice. Another philosophy that coincides with the philosophy of shadows is the philosophy of the cave and the chains. This philosophy states that our lives are like the lives of people who are chained to a dark cave, looking at the wall with light on our backs casting shadows of what is actually there. Shadows are, many times, distorted and can be misunderstood. What I'm saying is that what we live now may not be as absolute as it seems. As far as this philosophy goes, we may all turn out to Digimon or simply pieces of fruit."**

**Alice just stared at Yamaki, contemplating over what he had said about them possibly being 'fruit'.**

**"You...are...a...freak..."**

**"Maybe I am a freak, at least in the "Real World". Here, read this book, it's called "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Last Battle". You'll find something in there about an onion."**

**"About a what?"**

**Yamaki just gave a slight grin as he replied,**

**"Just read it to the end."**

**The pair opened the doors to the experiment lab only to gape in astonishment and disbelief.**

**"Wha-what happened here! What the HELL is that thing!"**

**The lab had been torn apart and the containment unit where Versaillemon was once contained in had been shattered. **

**And yet, despite all of the equipment having been shredded and cleared from the room, it was still fairly cluttered.**

**Maybe it was due to the fact that there seemed to be an odd creature...thing in the center of the room which sounded as if it were breathing lightly in a light sleep.**

**Footsteps were heard whilst Yamaki and Alice continued to gaze, transfixed, at the devastation and the interesting...thing lying in the middle of it all.**

**"Yamaki! I-"**

**"Riley, what the hell is that thing! How did it get in here! Where's Hyou! What-"**

**"WOULD YOU SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO ME!"**

**...Women are scary...**

**"Ahem, as I was saying, I've got a general idea of what happened. Not too long after you left the room, Versaillemon got knocked out but continued to absorb data, this time unrestrainedly. This overflow of data appears to have altered his Digital Code."**

**"...You mean...do you possibly mean that he has-"**

**"Yes. He's experienced a Mode Change Digivolution, Yamaki. And to top it off, the data we got from him fried our systems so we've been set back a couple of weeks...possibly months."**

**"This definitely wasn't a part of the plan..."**

**The destruction of the newly-made HYPNOS H.Q. wasn't a part of the plan either.**

**The trio, once more, turned to behold the odd thing Versaillemon had become whose name is now...**

(hah, did you think I'd give his name away so easily:P)

**(Omake of the ending of this part)**

**"Oh, by the way, do you think these high heels look good on me?"**

**"...You're wearing high heels, Yamaki?"**

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**Takato's P.O.V.-**

It took me a while to remember why I felt so horrible when I woke up. But, of course, I was rudely reminded with another beeping sound from my bag.

'Stupid Azulongmon...'

Alice was gone, the house was empty, no sounds of a blow dryer, running water, no anything... Except for BlackGigimon snoring up a storm from his little basket. I decided to leave him be until I washed up, from now on, he had to come along with me wherever I go. Which brought me back to Alice, she always took care of him when I couldn't, so things could only get worse from here on out.

"Hey, BlackGigimon, come on, buddy. It's time for you to wake up."

"Huh? Kaya, where is Alice? She sleeping?"

I stayed silent as he scrambled for Alice's now empty room, coming back to me with a sad face, ears and tail drooping. He looks as though he feels just as bad as I do about Alice leaving, she was family to us.

"I'm sorry, buddy. Azulongmon said she had to leave... Come on, let's get some breakfast before going to school. But remember, stay hidden for the time being."

BlackGigimon seemed to brighten up a little at the prospect of food, but it was only a little.

**At School...7:30 A.M.-**

I don't really think meeting my soon-to-be victims is a good idea, they might begin to tail me wherever I go and it would be harder to finish the mission. So for the entire day I had to rush from class to class, just to avoid any Tamer contact. BlackGigimon complained but only when it was lunch time and he took a whiff of food while I was rushing to a hiding spot. But I wasn't so lucky after school...

"Hold it right there, Kaya! Don't make me blast you!"

I snapped my head around to see who spoke until,

"Down here..."

And there, in all of his shining glory, stood...

I blinked...hard.

Terriermon. (yes yes, I know this scene was already played out by another author but the idea was so appealing! so yes, this part does NOT add credit to me)

Raising the sliver of an eyebrow he had in what I could assume was in an 'elegant' fashion, he spoke,

"And just where would our favorite little enigma be heading off to in such a hurry, eh?"

"Ah-gah-bla...er, you see I have to-uhhh..."

"Oh! Don't tell me! Kaya has a **GIRLFRIEND**! Oooohhh...come to think of it, you shouldn't tell Rika either, it'd break her poor 'widdle heart'...

At this, he placed both his paws over his heart and made a mock pouting face. It took me a while to pick myself up from where I had slipped when I tried to rush off when Terriermon made this little story up. This of course resulting in the Tamers catching up to Terriermon in which case I thought,

'Aw nuts...I'm as screwed as a Phillips in a pinhole...'

"Come on, Kaya, let's find a place to sit down and talk. Me? I think your mop of a head would do for me."

"Hey...don't you usually ride on my head, Terriermon?"

"Yea, well, you always complain when I'm on your head, so you can't say anything, now can ya, Henry?"

"..."

"Ha ha, momentai, Henry, momentai."

**At the Park**

"So...Kaya, can you tell us anything about yourself? Other than that you're somehow connected to the Sovereigns and have a somewhat special digimon?"

All was quiet, the only sounds were of the faint noises of Calumon and BlackGigimon playing and the odd anime-style, dramatic wind blowing by.

"...Yes...Please, tell us about yourself..."

I turned to the cryptic voice only to find Jeri. Sweet. Kind. Jeri. Looking maybe half as sinister as the ADR looked when it took on the guise of Jeri during the siege on Shinjuku. I just now notice she carries a red dog sock-puppet instead of the original yellow sock-puppet, the former looking just as intimidating, as though staring deep into my soul with its...dead, button eyes, almost anticipatingly...Jeri sure knew how to put on a puppet show, one worthy of the Crypt Keeper.

I turned away, trying to ignore the puppet 'staring' at me. I needed an alibi, and quick, but that idea did not seem very feasible because the invisible pressure the puppet seemed to stare at me with. Why am I so...disturbed by that puppet? It's like...it's alive, it can think for itself, and somehow read my every thought?

My eyes widened. Out of the corner of my eye, I was sure that the puppet had momentarily smirked at me.

"..Kaya? Are you alright? You look kinda pale," thank you, Rika, oh God, thank you.

"I..I don't know..." and it was the truth, cold sweat started to bead on my forehead and I could feel myself shaking, almost uncontrollably.

"Guys, I don't think Kaya is up to questioning today, I think the battle from the other day is getting to him. He did get his arm blown off by MetalGreymon. This can wait, it's not like we're going anywhere, is it?"

The Tamers just nodded and murmured in agreement.

**With Rika and Takato-**

I had quite a few bruises after the first few minutes of Rika taking me home.

She had insisted she support me and wrapped my right arm around her neck causing me to get an unwanted preview of her growing cleavage. This resulted in me suddenly feeling as if my head was about to turn into the largest fountain of nosebleeding ever. I quickly took my arm back and accidentally pushed Rika to the ground. Of course she was angry (assuming that I had been very rude to her) and took careful but swift aim and started beating the heck out of me. That resulted in her suddenly apologizing and starting the whole process over and over again, hence the bruises and slightly greenish tinges around bruises around my eyes.

"...I-er...sorry about the beating. I didn't 'really' mean to..."

I caught the 'really' tone but decided to avoid this topic.

"Eh-I'm fine, been through worse...I think. Thanks for walking me home though, it was nice...minus the bruising and odd swelling. I'll see you later."

"Bye, Kaya! Don't go doing anything stupid or reckless now, you hear?"

That brought me crashing back to reality: "stupid" and "reckless" was about to go down tonight. I knew this wouldn't be good, predictions I make about the future that seem to sound very bad usually came true. I fully expected this to be just as bad, if not worse, than I had predicted.

'I'm sorry Rika, this is something I have to do.'

BlackGigimon popped his head out of my hoodie.

"Kayamon? It's going to happen, huh?"

"...Yea..."

**That Night, 7:10 P.M., Rika's P.O.V.-**

I can't get the weird feeling out of my head, like something is hanging over my head or sneaking up behind me all the time. I keep looking over my shoulder, it's not like me to lose control like this. Why is this happening to me! I hate this feeling...

"Renamon, I need to let off some steam. Let's go out and train."

"Are you alright, Rika? You've been acting oddly ever since you came home today."

"That's why we're going out. Hurry up, no more questions, no slacking off!"

I stormed out of the room in a huff, too angry to care about where we were going to go, just wanting to let off a lot of steam. I failed to see Renamon looking down a little, as though thinking about something uncertain.

(Renamon) 'What is wrong with you, Rika? You used to be so caring a few...wait...no you weren't...but..why do I remember...'

**Flashback**

Rika looked a little shyly at the ground, fidgeting and holding something behind her back.

"Here, Renamon. Take this."

She tossed a small cylindrical object at me and I deftly caught it. It had the words "Sports Drink" on it, or something like that.

"It's an energy drink, thought you might like it. I'll see you after school, 'k, Renamon?"

And she rushed off with a small, but the most beautiful, smile.

But then this "memory" started to get garbled until-

"Listen, you! Don't let me catch you around my school again, you got it?"

I looked down ashamedly while kneeling in front of her.

"Oh great, now you've made me late for school. We're going to have a long talk about this later."

And she rushed off with a dark scowl while I leaned against a nearby tree, head in my paws.

**End Flashback**

Odd, I wonder why I have two memories of the exact same time and day.

Shaking my head, I teleported outside the Nonaka household and waited for Rika to come out. The wind ruffled my fur, but it was scented like no wind I had ever felt before. It held such a forboding scent to it that most nearly spelled out danger. It was almost like the scent of a digimon, but also not like a digimon. It wasn't a human either, nor a human-digimon hybrid. It was...not of this world, I could tell that.

Or maybe I have become too tense. A squirrel jumped out a bush with a nut in it's mouth and I sensed there was nothing else in the general area. I relaxed my muscles. Only it was in vain as Rika came out and I tensed up again.

**Takato's P.O.V.-**

This is it, probably the hardest part of my mission had begun. Stalking my friends...and taking them down, farther than the popular '6 feet under'. Also, it was kinda hard because I was in the invisible chair position, not moving a muscle because Renamon was sweeping the area with her penetrating eyes. But she relaxed as a random squirrel ran by.

'Ooohh...Kayamon, look! A squirrel! Can we go chase it? Can we? Huh, huh?'

'First of all, BlackGuilmon, I told you that when we're in this form you could use my real name, Takato. Second, no, we cannot chase the squirrel, Renamon would know we're here.'

'Aww, nuts, Takatomon...'

Yea, we bio-merged into ChaosGallantmon before coming here, I figured it'd waste less time in a battle to bio-merge before fighting. Also because I knew that Sakuyamon was incredibly powerful, possibly on par, if not a little higher, with Gallantmon. She has a lot of experience under her belt, what with Renamon at the controls or whatever. I think it's a smart thing to do to get a head start on her before she opens the usual dosage of a thousand cans of whoop-ass on us.

I was growing tired of sitting on thin air by the time Rika and Renamon left for the park. It was finally time for me to make my move. I moved swiftly and soundlessly as possible, anxious to not attract any attention. It was pretty hard, though, the foliage had gotten thicker making it much easier to rustle a bush and the entire park had not been tended to. But seeing as it was me who always took care of the area of the park that I used to hang out around, it wasn't very surprising. Rika and Renamon stopped next to the shed Guilmon used to take shelter in.

"Go, Renamon."

Renamon took to the air and attacked.

"Diamond Storm!"

And attacked the wall of the shed. I saw multiple spray-painted bulls-eyes on the side, each with a good chunk of diamond stuck directly in the middle. I gulped, this Renamon seemed more fierce and battle obsessed. I had heard many times that I had been a great influence on the Tamers. But in this altered timeline, they had never taken to me much so they stayed pretty much the same, so I could expect to fight a team-up of blood-thirsty Rika and blood-thirsty Renamon, a combination I would like to avoid. But then again, since when has something I wanted ever gone my way? Shrugging a little, I jumped out and made my strike against them.

"Demons Disaster!"

Unluckily for me, the pair had obviously prepared for a surprise attack. They immediately jumped back, Renamon holding onto Rika as she could not jump as far as Renamon. But it didn't stop there, immediately Rika started the Bio-Merge Digivolution.

"Bio-Merge Activate!"

**Matrix Evolution**

"Renamon digivolve to...Sakuyamon!"

"Shit," I whispered under my breath. Sakuyamon got into an elaborate stance with her staff lying across her shoulders.

"What the hell? ChaosGallantmon...Kaya? What did you attack us for?"

She twirled her staff in multiple arcs and pointed the tip at me. I reciprocated, the Gorgon in front and my lance pointing out.

"That's for me to know and you to fight for your life!"

I lunged for her with all the speed I possessed and feigned an attack with my lance but twirled around and slammed the Gorgon into her instead. Sakuyamon flew back but not before,

"Spirit Strike!"

I was caught off balance as the Gorgon continued to swing slowly to the side. I braced myself for the brunt of the attack and curled into a ball. The force of the attack was great, but since Sakuyamon was a Data type, her attacks didn't do much damage. I just bounced around a little but since I was in a ball, I used the momentum to bounce right at her and stretched my legs out and delivered a smashing kick to her abdomen.

Sakuyamon grunted as she was once more flung away. I landed with a backflip balanced and rolled out by the Gorgon. Sakuyamon got up wearily and took a defensive stance, staff held diagonally in front of her, legs bent.

"Kaya, I don't understand, aren't we friends? Why are you fighting me? What happened to you?"

"Hmph, we _were_ friends. Nothing happened to me, something happened to you. As for why I'm fighting you, I'll answer you when I finish you. Prepare yourself for defeat!"

"What do you mean we were-!"

She was cut off as I back-handed her with the Gorgon and slashed at her with my lance. She got hit with the Gorgon but was able to barely dodge the lance.

"Amethyst Mandela, Spirit Strike!"

She threw attack after attack, obviously they had been working on their attack speeds. I had to weave in between each attack, eventually getting hit here and there until she suddenly disappeared and reappeared in front of me.

"Amethyst Mandela!"

That hit me full in the face with all the force meant to hit me. I flipped about a hundred meters back and landed hard on my back. Sakuyamon jumped up and pointed the butt of her staff at me while dropping towards me. I gasped as I almost literally felt death try to get a grasp on me. Sakuyamon must have heard my gasp because I saw her stiffen and slightly turn the angle of the staff to my right. I scrambled quickly but not quick enough.

It wasn't too bad but it was a blow to a knight's pride. The dark blue and gold shoulder shielding was broken off but I was revealed to be alright, only the shielding had been broken off but my arm as a whole was fine. After a quick diagnostics check, and I mean really quick, I threw myself at her with all the pride of a knight who had suffered a 'sucker punch'.

I took my first offensive stance, shield blocking my front, lance pointing out and charged, roaring in all of ChaosGallantmon's fury. Sakuyamon was still off-guard and got hit full force with my attacks. My strategy was to copy her strategy, I attacked with more than one of my attacks simultaneously.

"Demon's Disaster! Judecca Prison!"

Although my attacks came slower because Judecca Prison took time to charge. I needed a faster way to attack. Sakuyamon took the time I took to attack to attack rapidly, artfully spinning her staff above her head and alternating with kicks while spinning around with her hands. What a gal, eh?

'''That's it!'''

'''What's it, Takatomon?'''

'''The way Rika and Renamon are attacking! That's how we're going to attack faster!'''

'''Ooooh!...I don't get it.'''

'''Ah well, just let me take over for a minute, ok, Guilmon?'''

'''Sure thing!'''

"Let's go!"

I began to charge up the Gorgon once more and dodged Sakuyamon's attacks. Once I charged enough to not waste too much energy but still be effective, I pointed the Gorgon right between my feet and did a hand stand on one hand on the shield, one had pointing the lance horizontally.

"Judecca Prison!"

I released the energy trapped in the Gorgon and the it began to rotate my body. It propelled me towards Sakuyamon and the lance began to cut into her armour and sides, but I wasn't done there. I charged up again, but this time in the lance.

"Demon's Disaster!"

The pronunciation came out a little wonky because I was spinning at high velocities but it was effective. The attack began to spread out in a radius and continued to grow in diameter until if finally gave out. Sakuyamon's armour was cracked and barely holding on, her staff had been lost somewhere along the way. Her hair now loose from the two fox-tail like ponytails. She was breathing heavily.

"I'm sorry about this, Rika, Renamon."

"...W-why? Why attack us?..."

"We attacked you because...I want you to be my friend."

Sakuyamon's eyes widened, or so I thought. Just one more word to say.

"Sorry."

I swiftly gored Sakuyamon through the chest, instantly deleting her. Only one word left her mouth,

"...friend..."

And she left this world. Her data began to fan out until I raised my hand and pointed it at the data. The data sparkled for a second and began to collect in a small sphere until I fully formed and I grabbed it. I took a good look at the amethyst orb, the exact color of Rika's eyes. I sighed and held the orb in front of my chest, in front of the Digital Hazard. The orb was simply absorbed into it and completely disappeared.

'''One down...'''

'''Don't worry, we'll see her again. Azulongmon said so.'''

'I'm not so sure if I want to believe everything Azulongmon says. Call me biased, but he took away some important things from me.'

We jumped towards our home with some private thoughts. I patted the Hazard symbol as a sign of payment of respects to Rika and Renamon. This was a really dark road.

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**Author's Notes: **well there you go guys, I happened to have some free time and decided to finish this chapter and post it. So dont get used to quick updates too much, i'll still be busy.

but still...

HAPPY TURKEY DAY although its still not turkey day yet.

so if you wanna review...REVIEW PLEASE lol. thanks for reading, ja?


	12. Get Away From Me!

welcome to the new chapter lol. i feel bad for the long delays but i've been upset about some stuff so i took a long time to even start this chapter.

not much more i can say, is there?

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon but I do own the oddly named digimon that will be referred to during this chapter (Discomon).

speech: same as always

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**Part III, End the Introduction to the Chaos, Enter the Reign of Chaos**

**Chapter 8**

**True Colors Pt. 4**

**/F: New Entry: Directory: HYPNOS Staff; Sub-Directory: DIS; File Name: Versaillemon**

**Versaillemon: A Hybrid digimon formed by the biomerge of Kim, Hyou and Agudramon. First discovered during the attack of a herd of rampaging rogue digimon, he has never been truely looked into until the demise of the late Matsuki, Takato where he (in his seperate then later on biomerged form) assissted in the research with the HYPNOS staff to discover a point in history where Matsuki, Takato could still be saved. Unwittingly, he set the research back for weeks and weeks with the destruction of the lab during a Mode-Change Evolution (though unbeknownst for the majority of the time, helped to push the research and process ahead months before anyone had anticipated it to be complete).**

**Note: Mode-Change Evolution has not been classified or named yet. No additional information included.**

**"You know Alice, this report does not do me enough justice. Why not put in how awesome I am in there too?"**

**"I'm not here to satisfy your egotistical desires, Hyou. I was instructed by Yamaki to report you in CHDI, not to blow more hot air into your self-righteousness."**

**"...It was just a joke...Jeez, lighten up, I got the research to jump ahead didn't I?"**

**"Yes, wonderful job with that, you're _such _a genious."**

**"...I still can't tell whether you're being sarcastic or not..."**

**"Good. It's best if you don't know."**

**Alice dated the entry and logged off.**

**"Now...since you're such a genius, how about a Socratic discussion?"**

**"How about a who?"**

**It was hard to tell if Alice was smirking or sneering in the dim computer lab.**

**"When did Takato Matsuki die?"**

**"...I don't know?"**

**"...When did Takato Matsuki die?"**

**"I already said I don't know."**

**"...Tell me..WHEN DID TAKATO MATSUKI DIE?"**

**"I DON'T KNOW, O.K.? I DON'T KNOW."**

**"THEN HOW CAN YOU JUST STAND THERE PRETENDING EVERYTHING IS ALRIGHT?"**

**A resounding 'slap' was heard echoing through the room. Hyou was on the floor weakly getting up. Through the dim lighting, Hyou saw tears in Alice's eyes.**

**"...Alice...I'm not pretending everything is alright. I'm not pretending to believe everything will be alright."**

**"Alice, I _do _believe everything will be alright. I have faith, so do you. But most of all we have hope. All you need is a little heart. After all, a little heart can perform miracles. Just look at Takato."**

**"..sniff."**

**Hyou walked over and wrapped Alice in his arms. Alice broke down and freely cried.**

**"A little heart can go a long way."**

**They stayed that way for a while.**

**"...You can let go of me now."**

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**Takato's P.O.V.-**

BlackGuilmon and I rushed home. Part of me wanted to jump for joy, part of me wanted to scream at the world and tear my shirt to pieces. I knew they were safe, Rika and Renamon, inside my protective digital code, but...

But it's not right, "killing" them in cold blood like that.

'But it's _not _in cold blood, you felt remorse, compassion, regret. After all, you're dark, not evil.'

I suppose so, but having to strike down my friends, no matter what dimension seperated us from reality, is not easy. Especially if you don't have anyone who can support you when you're weighted down with guilt and depression. Other than, of course, BlackGuilmon, but his lack of basic intelligence prevented him from fully understanding the situation, even though his insight is nearly unmatched.

My heart feels like it's been torn apart.

Home. Where is home? I read in a book or magazine once, "Home is where the heart is". If my heart has been torn apart, do I have a home?

BlackGuilmon and I canceled the biomerge and entered the house. Even BlackGuilmon seemed a little sullen as he de-digivolved into BlackGigimon and took to his basket to go to sleep. I stayed up for a while, sitting in Alice's old room. It was my first time in there since Alice left and it surprised me. The room was still completely stocked: bed, clothes, personal belongings, everything! If Alice had to go far away, didn't she have to take at least some of her stuff?

"Digital Sovereigns probably took care of it."

I began to look through her stuff (forgetting that it is very rude to look through a lady's belongings) to keep my mind off of other matters. I came across some stuff like I.D.'s, driver's licences (when did Alice start driving?), and just some other odd paraphrenalia. But then I saw the photo album.

When I saw it, immediately pictures we had taken together came into mind, because I had given her that album as a gift before we got here. I opened it to see the pictures.

I saw nothing.

The entire album was blank! I had even asked her to put the pictures in here. Then why is it completely empty?

"Maybe she took them with her and just left the album behind. Yeah, gotta be that.."

That was a weak excuse, but it was all I had to go by to avoid the idea that Alice had completely abandoned me.

"Who says it's better to have loved than lost...I'd like to wring that person's neck and-"

Then Alice's face popped up in my mind, Alice's face that was showing off the rare small smile. That was enough to calm me down again.

I exhaled, not knowing that I had been holding my breath when I had invisioned Alice's visage in my head. I felt sleepy, fighting Sakuyamon when she was that dangerous is hard work. Especially when she almost killed (there's that word again...) me. The room began to blur a bit so I layed down on Alice's bed and drifted off into dreamland. And I dreamt that Alice was still with me, here, by my side, showing me her beautiful smile. I smiled in my sleep.

**The Next Day, School First Period-**

None of the Tamers found it weird that Rika and Renamon weren't here, I'm disappointed to say. Had Rika or Renamon been missing in the actual timeline, a task force of all the Tamer's would have been deployed before you could say, "Oh". These Tamers..they're almost cold-hearted.

'But what does that make me?'

It was only during mid-first period when the Principal's voice came over the intercom.

"Students, this is your Principal, Mr. Yamasaki. I have an important announcement to make."

This introduction made electricity travel up my spine even faster. Hurricane Rika has been located.

"Ms. Rumiko Nonaka has filed a missing person report to the police office. Rika is missing, therefore I urge any of you that may have an idea to where Rika might be to immediately report it to either a school staff member of the local police department."

I'd be very surprised if this didn't elicit a surprised reaction from the Tamers. As I remembered, they didn't fail to please. Or rather, Henry did because he was the only Tamer, minus Rika, in my first period. And of course, his second reaction was-

"Do you know where Rika is?"

Typical, one thing I like about Henry is, he's the logical thinker (at least I remember him that way) and worried about his friends (ironic, no?).

"No, she went straight home when she took me to my home. How should I know where she went? I was the victim yesterday.."

And he replied in an almost Terriermon-like fashion, "Riiiight..."

And he looked away. I gulped, I just remembered how insightful of people's motives Henry could be. I could only hope he didn't figure it out.

Class after class, it was the same over and over again...Other than Jeri. Once again she stood out somehow. It wasn't like she wasn't worried or anything, more like...thinking deeply, so deeply she didn't ask any questions. Ryo in particular was worried. He bugged me all throughout Chemistry, Spanish, and P.E. As if those subjects weren't taxing enough, having Ryo tailing you wailing on and on about his "Pumpkin" made it seem that much harder. By the end of the day, he had driven me completely nuts.

"LEAVE ME ALONE! I'M GOING HOME! QUIT STALKING ME!"

And yet, Ryo did not fail to satisfy...the wrong desires I mean. He followed me everywhere I went so I had to run half-way through the city away from where I lived, back-tracked as soon as I lost him, and went back home. Until he saw me or I saw him, whichever, and I had to run back the way I came and double-time it this time because this time he had a bike to chase me down with. After losing him through some speedy traffic (and some very rude drivers making obscene hand signs and screeching out foul language) I lost him and raced home and I all but put the American hero, Flash, to shame as I seemed to become a blur, a panicky blur racing across town to a small haven known to most as "home". (BTW: Did I mention how annoying Ryo sounded in the American Digimon Tamers? I like to personify that).

All that activity left me with only a few hours to finish my homework (from the day before I mean) and today's homework and bring down another Tamer. I sighed as I weighed the consequences of either not doing my homework or not going with the plan.

"Well, if I do do the homework, I might just end up doing it again when I get the timeline fixed."

But I ended up doing some of the homework first and then gave up and prepared for another Tamer fight. This time, even though I still disliked the idea, I decided to target Ryo. Not just because he ticked me off earlier today, it's just that I'm too scared to fight MegaGargomon just yet, I can't get Kenta or Kazu because they won't be biomerged, and I really don't want to go after Jeri because...she doesn't have a Digimon partner and it would seem even less humane to "kill" (I'm getting to really hate that word) Jeri when she had no means for defense. Oh, and I don't want to have to kill (hate it!) my best friend's sister. Ryo it is.

It wasn't that hard locating Ryo, oh no. All I had to do was go to his house, see he was missing, wander stupidly around town looking for him for what seemed like hours and I found him in the woody area near Rika's house. I went in a complete circle...man I really hate this guy.

'He's probably praying to the spirits to get Rika to come back and say "Oh, I love you Ryo".'

That thought didn't cheer me up the way I thought it would. Rather it made me feel worse. Also, I was wrong. Ryo was in the woods practicing what looked like extreme cardio work outs and martial arts. When I made my way to him, he surprised me.

"I've been waiting for you, ChaosGallantmon."

I completely froze. I didn't like that tone of voice he held. His back was facing me but I could almost see his face, his expression of collected anger.

"So, you're the one who got rid of Rika, huh? Cyberdramon told me all about the little battle you had with her in the park. What were you playing at? Cyberdramon sensed it a mile away. You're too careless."

"...So, you've figured it out. The great Tamer, Ryo has put together all the pieces of the puzzle, huh? Wrong. You know nothing of what I am planning."

Ryo turned to face me, Cyberdramon dropped from the air where he had presumably been waiting for quite a while. I could see the fury building in Ryo and the excitement that rolled off of Cyberdramon. This was going to be one hell of a battle.

"Well, go on, biomerge. We will do battle to decide who lives...and who dies..."

Ryo didn't reply in words, rather in his biomerge.

**Matrix Evolution**

"Biomerge Activate!"

Cyberdramon Biomerge to...Justimon!

The cybernetic warrior impressively got up and flung his scarf/cape thing over his shoulder and let it loose. He flexed his cybernetic arm and fingers menacingly. Obviously a diversionary tactic.

"If you're trying to get me frightened, you're not doing so well."

"Who needs to frighten anyone?"

That came from behind me. My eyes widened as the pain collided with the back of my head.

"Trinity Arm!"

Justimon grabbed me with the Trinity Arm and put me in a full nelson and then kicked me back.

"Justice Kick!"

I stayed down for a few seconds. I couldn't believe just how powerful Ryo was. Then the nagging voice in the back of my head reminded me of something I had once heard from Azulongmon who heard that Ryo's true digimon partner was Milleniummon from ENIAC who was the "Mother" of the Digital World.

"Aww...fuck..You sure are tough...I guess it's to be expected, what with Milleniummon being your partner and all."

"What the! How did you know?"

Justimon got into the typical kickboxing stance, sideways stance, left hand in front and right in the back. He slowly began to circle me, and I circled him. We carefully studied the other's stance, looking for an opening in each other's defense.

"I have certain connections...I know many things, don't be so surprised."

"Hmph, if you say so. But you're not getting out of this fight alive, you little bastard of a tin can."

"Arrogant as usual, are you Tamer?"

Once again, he disappeared from my sight. I instinctively turned around and ducked. Justimon was, as expected, right there.

"Justice Kick!"

I swiftly brought up my arm and caught his kick. I took his leg in both hands and swung him up.

"Raaaaah!"

I then swung down and brought him down on his back hard. The ground collapsed underneathe him. Unfortunately he didn't miss a step.

"Justice Kick!"

He raised his other leg and swung it up my chin effectively making me let go of his leg and sending me flying. Of course he spent some time saying meaningless things.

"You can't beat me. I have the power of my bond with Rika! I have the power of the love she gave me when I personally destroyed the D-Reaper!"

I couldn't help but laugh uncontrollably after that little speech. Power of love? Jeez, how pathetic can Ryo possibly become? I mean, sure, love is pretty strong in some aspects, but talking about it now? In a situation like this? Okay...

"Ahaha! Oh man, are you ever the corny one? Power of love? Get it through your head: Rika doesn't love you! I doubt she even likes you. And if I read the reports correctly, you didn't do any damage to the D-Reaper. All you did was give it a small scrape compared to what the other Tamers did."

Well it shut him up for a few seconds.

"Well, I'm gonna 'scrape' a cut through your face!"

He raised his right arm and held it diagonally across his body.

"Voltage Blade!"

At first, I wasn't too worried. I had seen the Voltage Blade before, it was but a little dagger. But then I felt my jaw drop as far as my helm would allow me. The blade extended to a great length, comparable to the size of a two-story building. I gulped quite a large amount of fear-saliva.

"That...That's a large blade.."

"You like it? It's the result of the gift of love Rika gave me!"

"Oh, gag me with a spoon. You really are pathetic."

"Shut up! Raaaaaaaaaah!"

I formed the lance on my right hand and the Gorgon on my left. I crouched down to get some leverage for the inevitable blow.

I crossed the lance and Gorgon in front of each other and intercepted the Voltage Blade. My legs, being bent, took the brunt of the attack and I used that leverage to hold tight. It was working well, it was just digging my feet into the ground. If I didn't do anything quick, I would soon be an easy target to behead. Unfortunately, my means of defense was wearing off.

My eyes widened as I saw cracks appear on my lance.

"What the..No!"

The lance broke with a loud crack. Now I had less of a defense and the Gorgon might be broken through as well. Then it hit me; the Voltage Blade was directly centered on the Gorgon. Maybe, just maybe...

"Judecca Prison!"

The dark beam shot out and collided with the Voltage Blade, slowly pushing it back.

"Hyaaaaaa!"

The Voltage Blade snapped in two, it was beaten. But it wasn't beaten without consequences; the Gorgon had shattered as well, leaving me defenseless unless I could gather some serious data to reform any of my weapons. This would be difficult...

"Well, you might have beaten my attack, but now you have no means of attack. You're left at hand to hand and I bet I could kick your ass at that."

He wasn't too far from the truth, I had had to fight hand to hand once before during a battle before Hell's Gates. It was against some weirdo digimon. I mean really weird, he called himself Discomon. As his name suggested, he danced as a means of living and attacking. He had somehow deprived me of my weapons. I had a hard time fighting him hand to hand as somehow his dance moves were extremely powerful attacks. Unfortunately I couldn't defeat him until I had stalled him and retrieved my weapons and put an end to him there.

"But still..."

I had loaded his data as a last resort to heal my wounds because his army of digimon was right behind him, ready to finish me off. As a result of that, not only had I grown stronger and refreshed, I had gotten some of his fighting skill and attacks.

"I have a few aces up my sleeve, so don't count me out just yet!"

"Bring it on! Justice Kick!"

"Windmill!"

I countered his basic kick with a windmill kick, derived from the way breakdancers swung both legs around while spinning on their hands. Who knew breakdancing was so dangerous? Not to mention an effective means of attack. Needless to say, Justimon was taken by surprise.

"What the? What kind of attack was that?"

"Figure it out, oh great Tamer!"

I jumped into the air and flipped myself upside-down over one hundred feet in the air. I brought up my right leg and landed on my hands. Using the force of gravity and the momentum I gained, I brought down my right leg in an arc and sweeped Justimon's feet from under him. This brought him into the air and made him susceptible to my left leg which, through the momentum gained through my right leg, swung around quickly and nailed him in the side. Instead of letting him fly away, I used the greater variant of Discomon's kicking attacks.

"Straightening Spin Out!"

It was basically the Windmill kicking attack but instead of flying away, the opponent is caught between a hurricane of kicks and is tossed around and around, getting kicked on each side repeatedly until my body, like a top, eventually spun to a straight stance upside-down and launch the opponent into the air. Imagine that.

I eventually launched Justimon into the air, defenseless and all but broken. I wasn't done there though.

"Rising Dragon!"

Still on my hands, I bent my arms and launched myself to where Justimon seemingly hung in the air, suspended with my legs pointing at him. I swung my body backwards and got more momentum and kicked him in the back with my armoured heel in the air. There was a sickening crunch and Justimon cried out in pain.

Daintily, I landed on the ground. A second later, Justimon came crashing down, indenting the ground. His data was hanging on, but just barely. One more good shot and he would be completely defeated. Too bad I had no weapons but if _he_ did it in before in the past...

"Metal Claw."

The few fragments of data I had collected from MetalGreymon was sufficient enough to supply me with one of his attacks. My right arm grew more metallic instead of armour covered. A set of Chrome Digizoid claws grew out of the metal arm like a cat's claws. Good enough.

"I guess...this is it huh? Heh, you beat me. Guess I'll see Rika and Renamon soon enough..."

I shifted my head halfway to look over my shoulder at Justimon.

"No. You won't see Rika and Renamon. At least not in the way you think you will."

"What?...You saying..I...I'll see her in Hell?"

"No, nothing so religious as that. But you'll see soon enough."

With that, I spun around and nailed Justimon through the chest with the Metal Claw. Justimon chuckled in his last moments of life as he knew it.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd have said you're a good gu-"

And disappeared into particles of data.

As I had done before with Sakuyamon's data, I pointed my hand at the free-floating data. The data condensed around my palm until it became a perfect sphere. It looked like a marble made of pure garnet. How to associate that, I have no clue. But I knew my mission's end was closer than it was yesterday.

'''Don't worry, Takatomon. We did good. We'll have our friends back soon. Takatomon wait and see.'''

I smiled from my dark grey sphere.

'''Yeah, we'll get them back. And we'll get Alice back soon too.'''

_For your sake, lovely girl. And my own selfish desires to be with you against authority._

'For you, Alice.'

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**Author's Notes: **man that was a keyboardful...I wasn't really sure how to write the fight scene for Ryo but then DDR came into my head and banged on the windows and doors. my friend got obsessed with DDR (Dance Dance Revolution f.y.i.) and spammed to me about it for months on end and finally it clicked how I could utilize the spam. transfer it onto here. so the fight scene isn't exactly what I envisioned it to turn out like, but it's still pretty good in my book.

anyway, this chapter was submitted to on Valentine's Day (as much as I particularly loathe Valentine's Day). if you havnt made connections to the date, well I think you need to get out more into the messed up world. so if this is up February the 15th, curse the delayed timing on new submissions, curse it all!

and feedback is greatly appreciated!

Ja Ne


	13. Chapter ? It's an Alice Life

well, i've been gone for a long time huh? well, im stuck in florida for several months with only a laptop with minimal internet connection (wifi) so i'm busy and lacking in resources but...ganbatte, ne?

i cant quite remember the way rebirth was headed so i'll push on with the Alice side-story. mind, this will be a! little...odd? i dunno, may be a little short but i've been away from any mental stimulus for several months, so bear with me, please.

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or any other franchise name.

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**Chapter ???**

**A Tale of Two Lives, Of Alice and "Alice"**

**The burning passion only a child can possess, oh, where have you gone? Is it dead? Is it "dead"? Who are you? ...Who am I... A story? Yes... I see the story, but who is this bitter child? ...It's...me... What did you do to me? Why can't I remember?! Why...! Who are you to manipulate me?**

**"Give her back!"**

**...Who...?**

**"I don't care for your "plan"! I want Alice back, and I want her back NOW!"**

**...Go away...**

**"I won't give up! I refuse to leave, not without her! SHIELD OF THE JUST!"**

**...Why? You can't succeed... Just...leave...leave me here...**

**"...Ugh...damnit...damnit...DAMN YOU! RAAAAAAAAAH!"**

**...So dark...leave...before you lose yourself to the darkness as well...**

**"You've brought the wrath of heaven upon yourself. I see you for who you are now, a hollow shell trying to restore former glory. Let me, once again, say that you're attempts will not succeed. I will not stop until divine justice is done and sins are atoned for...both yours and mine."**

**...Can you really forgive sins? Then please...before I forget...**

**"Have at you, then! I will not hold back myself, even for a "divine" being such as yourself."**

**...Forgive me...**

**"SUPREME JUSTICE!"**

**...Who are you...**

The story of such a lively young woman...plagued by nightmares and sins she cannot repent for for she has not committed them. This is the story of a lost soul who has found her solace and, day by day, loses that very salvation. Can she survive? Is she destined to be damned for eternity? This is her story.

This is Alice McCoy.

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I open my eyes for what feels like the millionth time. Where am I? Oh, silly me, how can I forget? I am still here, where I have always been since...they even took the memory of that day away. Will all that really ruin their "perfect" vessel?

A few bubbles run past my eyes to the top of the tank. I look down on my naked body. I do not blush, I have become too accustomed to the sight to very much care. After all, the only other ones who see me in this state do not care whether I am dressed or not, so should I? The only thing that makes me uncomfortable are the cables attached to my head.

A video screen pops up and shows footage of what the other "me" is doing. The plan seems to be going well, it seems. "I" am doing a good job of manipulating all the other "gifted" ones in all the other quadrants and various "levels". I frown in the tank and huff. More bubbles rise to the top of the tank.

"Heh heh, are we feeling a little jealous?"

I look up hatefully at the overwhelming figure looking down at me. I hate this person, if you can even call him a person.

"You have no need to feel jealous of your insignificant avatar, Alice. We made you perfect, why yearn for the material world? Why yearn at all? We can give you anything and everything you want!"

"Can you, really? You can give me anything I want?"

More laughter resumed, it sounded a little good-natured.

"Of course! Anything you ask! Just name it and it will be granted!"

"...I want to be free."

Eyes widened. The air grew thin, not that I would know.

"W-what did you say?"

"I..I..."

I felt a welling feeling in the pits of my eyes and shut them tight.

"I WANT TO BE FREE!"

The other one backed up a little.

"I want to walk! I want to talk! I want to FEEL! ...I WANT TO LOVE!"

The other turned around and stormed out of the large room.

I was left to cry, tears mixing with the liquid in the tank as I remembered what little I could of being human.

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"Haha! Mama! Mama, look. Lookie here! I caught one!"

A little girl with blond hair hopped up and down holding a jar that contained a beautiful butterfly while smiling and laughing happily.

"Oh my! Alice! Good job! It's very beautiful!"

This served only to make Alice even happier. She held up the jar and swung it around and around laughing even louder.

"Alice, wait!"

Alice turned to look at her mother in confusion as she opened the jar and let the butterfly perch on her index finger. She delicately lifted it out of the jar and kneeled down so it was between the two of them.

"Alice, sweetie, you can't just swing something so delicate around like that."

Alice pouted and felt confused. It was just a little butterfly, there were lots of them flying around here!

"But why, Mama? It's just a butterfly."

"Alice, a butterfly is alive, right?"

"Right!"

Her mother tapped Alice's nose with her finger,

"And so are you, right?"

Alice giggled and answered,

"Yup!"

"Do you want someone to just catch you like that but not take good care of you?"

Little Alice looked confused.

"A butterfly is still a life, sweetie. Treat it like it's your brother or maybe a sister!"

With that said, she lifted her hand above her head and both mother and daughter watched the butterfly take flight.

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"Dad, I'm home!"

An older Alice walked into her home. She had cut off jeans, running sneakers, a baseball tee, and her hair was held up in two ponytails, one on either side of her head, with blue ribbons.

"Ah, Alice! How was your day at school? Did you do good on that test today?"

Alice smiled as she rose up from the refriegerator with two sodas in hand. She tossed one to her dad, Rob, a.k.a. Dolphin.

"Yup! I aced it, just like I promised, dad!"

Rob laughed heartily and caught the soda.

"That's my daughter, my little genious! I'm proud of you."

Alice blushed and waved it away.

"Aw, dad... you're making me blush!"

"Hey, remember, I promised you!"

Alice looked up hopefully, light shining off her lively blue eyes.

"This weekend! Disneyworld! My treat!"

Alice squealed and jumped into her dad's arms laughing with him.

"Eeeee! Thank you Daddy! Thank you!"

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"Alright! Say "cheese"!"

The camera in the photobooth went off and a picture of the McCoy family slid out of the slot. Alice had on a black and white baseball t-shirt and her hair was up in her trademark ponytails with blue ribbons. She was latched onto her dad's left arm smiling like the sun itself.

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Alice and her father both looked down at the photograph they had taken several years ago. A lone tear slid down Rob's face and Alice cried freely.

A casket was being lowered into the ground and the mourners said their last goodbyes and dropped their flowers on top of the casket.

"I miss mom..."

Rob wrapped his arm around Alice and nodded.

"Yeah, so do I..."

Rob's cell phone began to ring.

"...Hello? Oh, it's you, how are you? ...I see... This is a bad time, can I call you back? Alright, thanks. I'll see you on Saturday. Bye."

"Who was that, dad?"

Rob turned the phone off and hugged his daughter again.

"Just a friend, honey. Just wanted to see if I was free after this."

"Oh."

They looked at the workers begin to fill in the gravesite with tears still falling down their faces.

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"I-I can't shut it down! It's over-loading! Ah!"

The panel exploded and knocked the scientist over. He scrambled away as another explosion rocked the building.

"All regulator systems aren't functioning! We can't stabalize the field! All the systems are beginning to fail! We can't hold it down forever-!"

Another panel exploded and silenced the other scientist forever.

Rob began to panic. In all the chaos he couldn't find his daughter.

"Rob! The only way to stop this thing is to cut off the power! We've got to get to the transformer room and do an emergency shut down! There's nothing we can do here anymore!"

"But Alice! I can't find Alice! I've got to find her first!"

"Forget it, Rob! She's a smart girl, she can take care of herself! She's probably outside already with the others! We've gotta shut this thing down! So come on!"

Rob grimaced and ran alongside his friend towards the staircase that lead to the electrical transformer.

As soon as he reached the stairs he heard something that made his heart stop.

"...Dad! Dad help!"

"Alice? Alice?! Where are you?!"

"Here! Here! Help!"

Rob saw a small hand wave fractically from beyond the edge of the dimension pit and felt his heart skip several beats.

"Rob! Go after your daughter! I'll take care of the transformer, hurry!"

Rob didn't think about it twice and ran for Alice but stopped at his friend's cry of anguish. He turned back to see his friend lying face down underneathe a pile of debris bleeding profusely.

"Rob...if we don't get this transformer to shut down, the results are gongnna be catastrophic. Shut it down!..."

He dropped his head and fell unconscious. Rob was torn between stopping a catastrophe and preventing his daughter from falling into the experimental field.

"Alice! Please, I'm sorry but you're going to have to hold on just a little longer! It's only 10 steps down and I can turn everything off!"

"No! Please, no! No no no no! I'm scared, please!"

"Alice, please listen to me! Trust me!"

"...Alright, I'll do it."

"Thank you."

Rob took off running faster than he had ever run before towards the transformer but before he had even reached the edge of the first step a burst of electricity shot out and snapped the wire Alice was holding onto. Everything seemed to slow down and Rob witnessed his daughter fall into the field with a mixture of shock, fright, and disappointment on her face before she disappeared.

Another arc of lightning shot out and hit the main computer and overloaded it, making it start to shut the entire system down. Rob couldn't believe it. Before the field shut down, he swore he saw two pairs of eyes look at him before the entire field collapsed and disappeared.

Rob jumped into the pit for any trace of his daughter but found nothing. He fell to his knees and let out a cry of anguish. He cursed that he had tried to complete project D.I.G.I.M.O.N. again.

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"In times of crisis we have to hold on to our families."

Rob picked up a framed photo and looked at it sadly. It showed a picture of a young blond girl with blue ribbons holding her hair up. She had on a black and white baseball t-shirt and was clinging onto Rob's arm smiling brightly.

The Tamers' families looked thoughtful and looked out the window where their children would be fighting for their's and their families' and friends' lives against the D-Reaper.

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"Alice" watched Dobermon's "data" flow into the Tamers and their Digimon. She witnessed the miracle of Bio-Merge Digivolution through her own eyes...

And she saw Takato for the first time. Even Alice's avatar felt her "heart" skip a beat. Takato shined with courage and determination to protect those he cared about. Alice watched through her "window" how Takato fought brilliantly, never giving up. She felt a little jealousy that Takato shared such a strong love with Jeri and Rika. It was odd that she felt like this when she had experienced nothing but fear and sadness for years after her "capture". Takato had become a source of light to her; her very salvation, even if he couldn't do anything.

And then came the blessed day when "they" decided to finally focus on Takato and relieve his distress in their own way. They used Alice's avatar to approach him and train him. That was their mistake. Even though the avatar was nothing but a projection of the real Alice, her emotions flowed and bridged the gap. Her emotions did not affect the avatar much so all the avatar felt were unusual twinges going against its protocols making it feel a little uncomfortable. But she was able to "interact" with Takato finally and learn a thing or two. But they caught onto it too soon. Much too soon. The avatar was sent away to manipulate another special life.

And little by little, they drained away the memories of the days that she had spent with Takato. Little by little her salvation was pulled away from her. Little by little the darkness resumed its way into her life.

More and more she cried out to Takato, wishing with all of her heart that he would hear and soon arrive. So she wished and wished and wished. She blushed from dreams and cried in her nightmares.

And she remembered. Everything from when she first laid eyes on him all the way to Hell's Gates and his reconciliation at the end.

Exhaustion overtook her and she slowly closed her eyes. But she still remembered.

She remembered the sun...

...remembered Disneyland...

...remembered the butterfly...

...and Takato...

...she remembered...

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like i've said, it was pretty short. but this isnt the real Alice side-story. more like...an overview i guess. the side-story will be just that, a short story on Alice and her p.o.v. during their adventures together.

anyway, it has been a very long time since i've updated, huh? my bad, but with boot camp, combat training, and now Florida for job training, i've been really caught up. and one of my best friends died so i've been feeling a little down for a few days. i traveled across this continent about 3 times in less than 3 weeks and i'm real tired...

anyway, i hope you can find the kindness to review, hehe...

Ja Ne


	14. Whatever Can Go Wrong

so after a little detour with my fictions, Rebirth is now back online.

new and surprising twists are bound to come and an unexpected end to the Tamers will await you all who will still read this story.

Takato and BlackGuilmon face tough choices as they now come closer and closer to the end of the non-merging Tamers. Will they become murderers or will it all turn out alright? Of course it'll turn out alright! This IS Takato we're talking about here...Right? Wrong. Things just get worse and worse as the battles progress and even tougher choices have to be made. The Masters are revealed to be puppets in someone else's grand scheme. Even Alice might just be a backdrop for a greater play that is beginning. An unexpected enemy is lingering backstage, rewriting the script to his own desires and someone near and dear is an even bigger puppet. Alice's "captors" don't even come close to this new and threatening evil that lurks, an ageless evil only the pure of heart have ever been able to vanquish but never destroy.

Looks like they could all use some help, no? A call for help is sent to all Quadrants, Sectors, and Levels of the vast expanse of the Digital World. More and more "gifted ones" will appear to come to the aid of the ultimate confusion, Takato. The older heroes, the veterans, the ones who have stared destruction in the face and lived long enough to destroy the destructors will all come to aid them. A battle of epic proportions awaits the entire universe. Who knows? Maybe even all the universes and dimensions will witness this epic battle. Nothing is for certain...But what is certain is...

**Takato is in over his head this time...**

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon

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**Part III, End the Introduction to Chaos, Enter the Reign of Chaos**

**Chapter 9**

**True Colors Pt. 5**

**"A.M.'s Log, Final Entry:**

**"The day Takato died...I just wish I could forget it. Sometimes I wish that I had never really met Takato. But everyday, I wish that Takato had lived and was here, next to me.**

**"He fought brilliantly against the enemy that day. Even against overwhelming odds, he stayed true to his style and never let himself give up or get down. The way he commanded the Last Army in the "War to End All Wars"...it can bring a tear to even the most tough of military personnel. He put all generals, all presidents, kings, majestrates, saints, emperors...he put them all to shame. He was always the first to run into the fray and last to move even an inch back in a retreat. **

**"When he faced the ultimate destruction, the all-encompassing Lord of Terror of Ages, he was literally like an ant compared to him. Not only was this being hundreds of times larger than Takato as Gallantmon: Crimson Mode, he was thousands of times more powerful than him. It was a testament to Takato's indomitable will that he stood up after being hit time and time again. Even after he had wings torn off of him, he struggled to fly and fight this unbeatable foe.**

**"His Army, as scared as they may have been, took courage from his example of bravery and courage and charged towards the enemy. All from the most powerful Megas to even the weakest of the Baby digimon, even the humans took part of the final charge of what would be the greatest war in the history of the universe. They were all willing to sacrifice their lives, hopes, and dreams, all for the sake of their wonderful Leader. This is what made Takato such a shining star in history, never to be forgotten. It was not that he was the most powerful, intelligent, wise, or even the best person to lead them. It was the fact that he had people who would follow him all the way to certain destruction and the face of the devil himself, just for their beloved Leader. He had the love of his people to support him, even as he fell. **

**"Other, lower ranking Generals jumped next to General Gallantmon: Crimson Mode and fought brilliantly as well. Generals as well known and famous as Kamiya, Taichi and AgelessWarGreymon from the Eastern Quadrant, and Akiyama, Ryo and RedeemingJustimon, the Singularities of the Digital World, down to virtual unknowns such as Watanabe, Setsuna and MetalSeadramon from the Southern Quadrant, Level 3. They led their troops face-first into certain doom without fear or wonder at what their troops were thinking of. They knew, the troops knew, we all knew that we would do anything to protect our families, friends, and brothers and sisters, and especially, our wonderful Light, Takato and Guilmon.**

**"It's hard to believe, a child like Matsuki, Takato had created a digimon and had grown up to have the respect of the entire universe and lead us in the final War. To think, we were following the orders of a child, but we found no discomfort. He had our utmost trust and faith that he would win, no matter how absurd it sounded. **

**"And we were right. Takato had led us to our redemption, we had won the war. We had our happiness. But what about Takato's happiness? What about Takato?**

**"He had died. It was a classic plot: The hero defeats the evil but had to sacrifice his own dreams, desires, and life so that he could preserve our own. "Why was he so selfless?!" That was the question raging through so many of our heads and hearts. We had won, but the cost was great, we had lost our beloved Leader.**

**"Takato and Guilmon were no more. But so was the Ageless Evil, the God of Destruction, the Bringer of the Universes' Discomfort, The Son of the Mother. He had, of course, been shocked that he was defeated. It was understandable. An ant taking down a virtual God? It was unconceivable, but it was Takato that we were talking about.**

**"All of the Last Army willingly gave up the remainder of their energy in the classic fashion. Takato accepted their gift as his last action between him and his loved ones, the entire Army. He received an even greater form than his Gallantmon: Crimson Mode. He was no longer a Digimon, but he wasn't NOT a Digimon. It's impossible to classify his new existence.**

**"We decided to call it "Hope". After all, he was our hope, we poured our hopes and dreams and our strength into him. He had no body, a body would be detrimental to his state of existence. When he spoke, it sounded like an Angel's voice.**

**" "Accept this! Our hopes, our dreams, make them yours now and be at PEACE!" Typical of Takato to think even of the enemy in his heart. He called his attack "Peace". It made sense. As the ultimate form of destruction, Peace would be the most effective thing to put an end to it. The Lord of Terror of Ages' body absorbed "Takato" and just ceased to exist, utterly destroyed. A golden orb of light remained and formed the familiar form of Gallantmon: Crimson Mode, his body completely refreshed, his wings returned. But his mind was gone, he was on the brink of death. His strength gone, his wings could no longer support him in the air and he fell. His ever loyal Army waited for him below and gently caught him as he fell. Even in death, Takato and Guilmon were beautiful.**

**"But he didn't open his eyes again. They remained closed. The Last Army, together, gave an almighty cry that shook the very universe to its core. Takato and Guilmon were dead. Even General RedeemedBeelzebumon shed tears and, surprisingly, embraced the fallen body of Gallantmon: Crimson Mode and, for the first time, called Takato and Guilmon by their given names. Nonaka, Rika and Renamon, as PrincessSakuyamon fell on their knees next to Gallantmon, finally broken, and slowly, delicately removed his helmet, showing us his face for the first time. We couldn't describe his face; it was the face of an Angel, finally at peace.**

**" "For the first and last time...Takato, Guilmon..." Together, Rika and Renamon kissed Gallantmon on the lips chastely. They picked up Excalibur and clasped both of Gallantmon:Crimson Mode's hands around the handle and laid them to rest on his chest.**

**"And then I came up. I refused to believe the reports of the scouts. Even surrounded by mourning digimon and humans alike, I denied the fact that Takato had died. I pushed PrincessSakuyamon and RedeemedBeelzebumon out of the way and went up to their body. Still refusing to admit he was dead, I slapped him hard, not that it had any effect. He was dead. I began to cry and kept pounding his body with my tiny hands. PrincessSakuyamon de-evolved and Rika walked up behind me and embraced me, crying as well, for we both had fallen in love with our wonderful Leader. He would never return.**

**"In the realm which we fought the last battle did not allow digimon or humans to become data once they were dealt a fatal blow. That explained the many bodies of fellow digimon and humnas littering the battlefield, bleeding, even the digimon.**

**"But there was no blood with Gallantmon: Crimson Mode. Just...what seemed to be a silent and peaceful death. He was dead. I looked up at his face and studied it. I rose a trembling hand and laid it on his cheek. It felt so cold, but made me feel warm. I brushed a few strands of his impossibly perfect hair away from his face, bent over, and gave him a kiss filled to the brim with longing, passion, and love in its simplest form. The witnesses lowered their heads and paid their respects.**

**"It did not matter whether you were young, old, Rookie, Mega, Vaccine, or Virus. We all held the same love for him, the one who had saved us. And he had left us with our lives, his last gift to us.**

**"It has been many years since he has died and the Last War had ended, yet here I am still mourning. I mourn still because I now hope, I now believe that we can save him. The results are not yet known, but we all hope for a brighter future.**

**"End Log."**

**Hyou turned off the recording and set the tape down. He looked pensive. He held his head in his hands and looked down, elbows resting on his knees.**

**"Wow...just...wow...I never knew Takato was that great. How am I supposed to amount to that. Even Kamiya was unable to save him, how am I supposed to help him? What have I been doing all these years?..."**

**The weight of his task had never before felt to burdening to him. The sound of this evil force Alice was talking about sounded incredibly terrifying. **

**"How the hell am I supposed to measure up to that? Just listening to the description of this evil is making me scared...How am I gonna have the testicular fortitude to fight that thing..."**

**"It's not about how manly you are you know."**

**Hyou looked up and saw Alice standing there with unshed tears in her eyes. But she was smiling. She looked stunningly impressive framed in the doorway, the light on her back and her long hair loose. She looked like a goddess of rest and peace.**

**She walked over to Hyou and sat next to him on the couch. He picked up the recording and rewinded up until the part where she had described exactly what made Takato stand out so much compared to other historical figures. Together they listened in silence.**

**"Takato...he had a special way of making you feel like you don't care if you're scared or feel like running away. It wasn't that he instilled carelessness in you, it was that he was such an inspiring person and people would do anything, I mean anything, for him. You'll be no different."**

**Alice sighed and pulled out a picture from her wallet. It was a picture Takato had asked one of his friends from the Northern Quadrant to take for him. Both Alice and Takato had their eyes closed, looking very peaceful. They were on a small hill with green grass in the shade of an oak tree, the sunlight striking their faces at just the right angle. This had been taken just a few days after Takato had rescued Alice from the lab.**

**"I did love him, really, and so did Nonaka. Sure, when Takato met her after he returned from his first trip to the Northern Quadrant, she was...well, different, but even after he gave her new life and returned her memories she couldn't help but eventually fall in love with Takato."**

**Alice chuckled as she remembered something. Hyou just looked confused and wondered what was so funny.**

**"I just remembered how much we used to fight over Takato when we finally met. Of course he didn't know about our fights but was well aware we both fell in love. I think that's the reason why Nonaka and I have such respect for each other now."**

**"You don't say, McCoy."**

**Alice and Hyou looked up to see the tall, lovely form of Rika Nonaka approach them. She was wearing one of the lab jumpsuits which accentuated her curves very well. Even after all these years she had the same haughty and commanding fire in her eyes. Her long red hair was currently thrown into a haphazard ponytail low on her head.**

**"You know you're supposed to be in the test lab, instead of traversing down memory lane, right? And you! Why didn't you tell her!"**

**"Hey don't look at me, she's the CEO of CHDI. I figured she could do pretty much what she wanted around here."**

**Alice tucked the picture of her and Takato safely away and stood up and stared Rika in the eye, despite the fact that she was shorter than her.**

**"I was on my way there anyway, I'll see you there Nonaka."**

**She walked out the door and disappeared around the corner. Rika smirked and turned to walk out as well when Hyou stopped her.**

**"Hey, Rika!"**

**"What?"**

**"Did anyone ever tell you you look very good in a jumpsuit? You should consider wearing one more often."**

**Rika turned around with a burning look in her eyes and Hyou gulped.**

**About five minutes later Rika left the room looking very content. Looking inside the room, one could see mass destruction comparable to twenty tornadoes all compacted into a small room and a beaten and battered young man left lying in the middle of it all.**

**"It's hard to believe she's actually a fashion model nowadays...ow..."**

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**Takato's P.O.V.-**

How the hell did this happen? I ran into another corner and narrowly dodged another police officer. I knocked another officer over and ran as if my very life depended on it. Well, actually it DID depend on it. I heard gunfire behind me and I ducked and rolled into an alley. That was my mistake.

Waiting in the alley for me was Henry with Gargomon pointing his very big guns at me. There was bloody murder in their eyes.

"Oh come on!"

Just how did this happen, you may ask? Well it all started the day after I had disposed of Ryo. I arrived at school. Everyone seemed to be minding their own business as I reached the gates, but something felt really off. It was a gut instinct I had developed in the Northern Quadrant where your instinct was probably the best thing to rely on. Unfortunately, my instinct was correct.

I noticed something flash out of the corner of my eye and I raised my hands in defense and caught Henry's flying kick just in time. Not missing a step, Henry bent his body over backwards and, using his hands as his support, swung his other leg around and caught me on my ribs. Guess he was really serious about his martial arts training, but so was I.

Not losing my balance, I spun around and landed on my feet. The students were running away and that was what scared me the most. When there are fights at schools, students tend to run _to_ the fight, not away from it. Henry ran at me and threw a punch as I ducked and hit him with a sharp jab to his abdomen causing him to lose his breath and head-butted him from underneath his chin. He began to tilt back and I swiftly palm-striked him straight to the sternum and made him land on his back. I jumped back, not really wanting to hurt him. After all, he was my best friend.

Obviously he thought otherwise.

"Murderer!"

My eyes widened at that word. My mind plagued me with images of what I had done the past few nights in the time span of two seconds. That was long enough for the cops stationed strategically around the school to close in. I grimaced and looked around warily.

"That's him! He's the one who killed my friends!"

"I did no such thing!"

It was true, I hadn't killed them...

"Shut up! It was easy to put together. What did Rika and Ryo have in common before they "disappeared"? You! This all happened as soon as you arrived, you're to blame!"

That was all the cops needed to hear. They slowly closed in telling me to take it easy and come quietly. Of course, I was always a little deviant to authority. I spotted the weakest link in the circle and rammed through him and ran like a bat out of hell.

Which brings us to here; Facing down an irate Henry and a locked and cocked Gargomon ready to shoot me down.

"Before I give Gargomon the thumbs up and turn you into swiss cheese, tell me why you did it."

"My reasons are not your concern...yet. You'll understand soon, but you must be patient."

"I have no patience with murderers who killed my friends!"

"I DIDN'T KILL THEM!"

"SHUT UP! Gargomon, fire at will!"

I ducked, weaved, and dodged my way into a building and quickly let BlackGigimon digivolve to BlackGuilmon we ran to the roof only to find more dismay. Waiting for us, as if he all the time in the world, was the gargantuan form of MegaGargomon.

"I've been patient long enough! Today you're going to pay for what you've done!"

He swung his hand up faster than I thought he could and brought it down on the building that was luckily condemned. I ran to the edge of the roof and jumped off as hard as I could, BlackGuilmon right behind me. I said the words that felt so warm in my heart and mind.

"Biomerge Activate!"

**Biomerge Digivolution**

Our bodies joined in midair and a sensation washed over me that overrode the fear. I landed on a building far away from where MegaGargomon stood. He noticed and took flight to my location. I turned around and began building hopping until I found a deserted area. A construction area with lots of dangerous toys. I grinned underneath the faceplate. My viral instincts were kicking in.

I waited for Henry to arrive and mentally prepared myself for the battle and what was to come. I was too preoccupied to notice the dark shapes rushing around the lot. I was too focused on the battle to come.

When Henry finally arrived, he wasted no time with words. Instead he just opened fire and a volley of missiles and bullets began to rain down. I was arrogant enough to wait for the missiles to come a little closer when a pink heart-shaped bubble encased me, surprising me enough to not to move and the missiles hit their marks. When the smoke cleared, I heard a great many other things.

"Spiral Sword!"

"Kahuna Waves!"

"Treasure Axe!"

All three of the weak attacks hit their marks and pushed me back farther. It appeared that all the remaining Tamers had gathered to take me out. This was both good and bad. All the Tamers had gathered so it'd be easier and quicker to finish, but my conscious would suffer. But where was Jeri?

I jumped high in the sky, aiming to take out the strongest first. Henry fired a volley of rockets from his right shoulder but I swiftly rolled and relocated myself to his left. That was my mistake. He used the rocket propulsion of the rockets to swing his right hand up to my location a lot faster than he normally would be able to. I noticed just quickly enough to bring my shield in front of me. His large hand reached all around me and grabbed me. He covered his right with his left and began to squeeze. Luckily my shield was propping his hand open just enough for me to wriggle around, but for how long?

Hey, now. There's an idea. I grinned, not that Henry could see it. I positioned my forearm horizontally and summoned my lance effectively stabbing through his hands and loosening his grip enough for me to jump out relatively unharmed. I jumped off of his hand and tried to attack with one of my patented Demon's Disaster attacks. Note the tried.

"Treasure Axe!"

Luckily my armour was strong enough to stop the blow in its tracks. It just annoyed me to an extent.

"You little insect! Take this! Demon's Disaster!"

Antylamon felt the full force of my attack and fell back down onto the ground, thoroughly battered from that attack. That was enough for MegaGargomon though. He took as quick an aim as he could and began to fire bullets at me at an alarming rate. Almost all the bullets hit their mark and the advantage MegaGargomon's type offered was thoroughly explained to me. Luckily, as ChaosGallantmon I had incredible strength and was able to shake some of the blast off and jump right back into the fray.

"Demon's Disaster!"

"Gargo Missiles!"

Both attacks collided and the exploding missiles set off the missiles coming in after them and a cloud of smoke covered our field of view. But that was when everything went wrong. The smoke I understood. It was the cloud of a Digital Field that I didn't understand.

"A digimon? Bio-emerging now?"

Even Henry seemed to be distraught.

"Damnit! That's just great!"

All digimon and Tamers present waited to see what digimon would show but we waited in vain. I was surprised but it was MegaGargomon who voiced his complaint.

"Then what the hell is the Digital Field for-aahh!"

I heard a massive thud and the force of the impact showed that MegaGargomon had dropped to his knees, his back smoking. I saw a dark shape dart off towards the unprotected Tamers.

"Shit!"

With all the speed I possessed, I ran over to the Tamers and rose my shield to protect them from the attacker. The Tamers widened their eyes in disbelief until they realized that I was protecting them. Kenta voiced his thoughts.

"But..but why are you protecting _us_? I thought you were trying to kill us."

I grimaced as another barrage came from the unknown assailant. I wouldn't dream of actually killing any of them.

"Let's just say-ngh! Let's just say I have my reasons, Kenta. And, just so you know, the ones that disappeared are safe. I've made sure of that."

Kenta widened his eyes, Hirokazu still looked like he was about to piss himself, and Suzie was smiling just a little. I was the unexpected hero, who knew?

And then my heart stopped. I thought I heard a whisper from one of them.

"Takato...?"

Before I could react an even larger blow hit my shield and sent me flying over the Tamers and into a steel frame of a building. I saw MegaGargomon's giant feet run past me and dive at the assailant.

"Gotcha!"

The Digital Field cleared a little and we were all shocked at what we found in MegaGargomon's hands.

"J-Jeri?!"

She looked frightened out of her wits and was shaking and tears were rolling down her face.

"Henry? You-you're not going to hurt me are you?"

"Wh-Of course not, Jeri."

He immediately let go of her. That's when something incredibly wrong took place. A grin I had not seen on her since the D-Reaper incident crossed her face as she struck MegaGargomon through the chest with a red blade that grew from the red sock poppet on her hand. MegaGargomon stopped moving. He seemed too shocked to say anything. He had no final words. He exploded into data.

I was frozen. I couldn't comprehend what had just happened. The Digital Field began to close in again. Then I heard her voice.

"I must say, _Takato_, I am very surprised you showed yourself here again. I figued you would have just stayed over at the Northern Quadrant where you were safe. But I guess "criminals" always return to the scene of the "crime". Now say goodbye to the last thing of your childhood."

I heard movement where the Tamers were at, looking shocked that it had been Jeri of all people to finish off a Tamer. It was then I realized her intentions. Their last words were,

"Takato...?"

"NOOOOO!"

I lunged at the shadowy figure looming behind them but it was too late. An explosion rocked that area leaving both digimon and Tamer alike lying on the ground lifeless.

I dropped halfway there on my knees and stared at their spread eagle forms from Kenta, Kazu, and sweet little Suzie. All dead...

"No...I...I failed..."

Laughter filled the air, horrible, high-pitched, girly kind of laughter. Suddenly the Tamer's bodies became floating data as well as their digimon, surprising me.

'Of course! The Digital Field! And we all have a data percentage in our bodies since we all went to the Digital World!'

My thoughts were interrupted by Jeri.

"I would think you also want Jeri's data too, wouldn't you?"

"What?!"

The Field completely vanished this time and revealed a Jeri that seemed...disgusting. She looked as she always did, but something in her manner made her look just disgusting.

"Did you really believe a hopeless girl like your Jeri could ever do something like that to one of her, pfft, "friends"?"

"You mean...you're-"

"That's right, I'm not Jeri. I guess you could call me a clone, but that doesn't do me justice. After all, I just took down a Mega digimon with my own hands!"

She began to laugh and her head began to jerk around disgusting me even more so. She plunged her hand into her own body and tore something out. It was a data orb, much like the ones that I was collecting.

"Here, I have no use for this and my Master and I are very curious to see what you will do with them. Are they just mementos of your friends since you are no longer loved by them? Or do you enjoy the thrill of a kill just as much as we do?"

My eyes clouded with rage and I unleashed a war-cry along with some very colorful language that would make a sailor cry as I lunged at her. She disappeared from view but left the data orb behind. Her voice still lingered though.

"We'll be keeping an eye on you, ChaosGallantmon. Expect a house call every now and then. Until we meet again."

She made a kissing noise and then disappeared.

I let loose a strangled cry of pain and anger and began to pummel the ground relentlessly until my armour cracked a little. I breathed heavily and noticed the clouds of data floating around. I slowly got up and, one by one, began to harvest the data into seperate orbs and inserted them into my code once again. I picked up Jeri's orb and dusted it off.

"I'm sorry...All of you, I'm sorry."

At least my primary mission had been completed and I had not been the one to deal the killing blow. I left for home.

As soon as I reached home, I had to use BlackGuilmon to retreat several objects in the house because the cops had set up a perimeter around the home Alice and I used to live in. After we got everything we needed, I went to the park and laid down flowers for my friends at the foot of the steps leading to Guilmon's hut. There I opened a portal to the Digital World to report in and tell them everything that had happened while I was here. I looked back once and said softly,

"Goodbye...for now..."

I stepped into the portal and felt myself transfer to the Digital World.

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**Author's Notes: **there you are, you guys. unexpected twist, no? And the intro to this chapter was a doozy for me. I've gotten rusty in my writing and typing skills so i'm pained. well, everyone take care this sunday with superbowl and everything.

I CANT BELIEVE I'M GONNA MISS THE SUPERBOWL. IDIOT PUT ME ON A 24 HOUR POST IN A SCHOOL OFFICE. HOLY F$ING SHIT!

sigh...make me feel better by reviewing, ya?


	15. Hyou: I Am Who I Am

so, here i am, at 1 in the morning reading and reading until a brilliant thought hits me. "Hey! Why not work on your fic again?" Well other than the fact I was this close to stabbing someone for being an under-age drunk shitbag, I am very tired, my eyes are half shut and getting lower, and the laptop is starting to chuckle (yes, chuckle).

but on with the madness.

Madness it is!!! This chapter is 23 pages long!!! 23 pages long!!! Just like that new Jim Carrey movie that's coming out! "The Number 23" Whooooooooo...spooky...

Takato left Tokyo once again, now that all the Tamers have been taken care of (courtesy A La Jeri clone). If you're wondering whatever happened to Ai and Mako, well it will be explained later on. with the altered timeline, Takato's been told Ai and Mako were never Tamers. So what's up with those orbs? What's up with the Jeri clone? Just who is really pulling the strings? When will Takato's life ever get simple?

Unfortunately, the answers won't be told in this chapter. This chapter is devoted to my OC: Hyou (that's me!) A little indepth in his character, personality, and agenda before he associated himself with Hypnos and the rest of the Tamers. A little bit of action, romance, drama, mystery; a little bit of everything I suppose. Enter Hyou, the non-shadow (refer to the beginning of chapter 9).

oh, and I figure this story will be too big for just 3 parts. a miscalculation when I first started this fic, my bad. It will more than likely be several more parts to it before it ends.

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon. Boo, mother-fing, Hoo.

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**Part III, End the Introduction to the Chaos, Enter the Reign of Chaos**

**Chapter 10**

**I Am Who I Am, Nothing More, Nothing Less**

**Kim, Hyou Shou:**

**Date of Birth: 11/24/88. An orphan who was adopted by a prestigious family at the age of 13. Received Digimon parter, Agudramon, at age of 15 during a business meeting in West Shinjuku, Japan. Biological parents are unknown and all other relations unknown. At the age of 16, he met McCoy, Alice who was at the age of 17 after Matsuki, Takato's death/deletion. Ever since then, Kim, Hyou has been McCoy, Alice's sole emotional support.**

"Hm...not much glamour here, is there?"

Hyou leaned back in his office chair and stared at the ceiling as he went over what Alice had told him, not an hour ago. He wondered exactly how he had become a source of comfort to Alice and he also wondered exactly who was comforting who.

It was 1 A.M.

The door to his office swung open and Hyou turned to greet his digimon partner, Agudramon, an albino-version of Agumon with gray spikes protruding from certain areas, gray claws, and blue eyes. It had been a while since Hyou had been able to spend time with his partner, what with all the planning and business meetings he had to attend as the owner of CHDI. The last thing they had done together was biomerge so they could download Yamaki's latest program.

But they both understood. Things were necessary. They put aside their personal time so they could better the lives of other people. It was something they had learned from Takato and Guilmon, or what they read on them. Takato and Guilmon would sacrifice anything to protect the ones they loved.

"Hey, Agudramon. Whatcha got there?"

"It's coffee. Black, no cream, lots of sugar. I figured my best friend could use some help staying up these long hours doing nothing."

Agudramon had the intellect of a budding teenager. He wasn't exactly the life of the party but he could hold his own in a social environment should the occasion ever arise. He was generally friendly to everyone, digimon and human alike. He helped out wherever he could and never complained once. He was like the stage crew during a play. Never seen but always there. Every one of the staff members enjoyed talking with Agudramon whenever the opportunity arose. Agudramon offered a little bit of insight that was unbiased and considered true. It was true, he was popular but he enjoyed working with the backdrop.

Hyou gratefully received the coffee mug and took gradual sips of the strong black liquid.

"Cheers, mate...Ugh, I still think it could do with some more sugar, don't you think?"

"Put anymore in there and you'll stay awake until doomsday, partner. And you've neglected to brush your teeth for a couple of days."

"I did no such thing!"

But Hyou unwillingly brought his hand up to his teeth and began picking at them unconsciously while Agudramon laughed.

**Several Years Before**

Hyou wandered around the streets of Seoul, South Korea aimlessly. He had nowhere to go and no one to wait for him, except back at the orphanage. But all that ever awaited for him there was more ridicule and tired maids and caretakers of various ages who had grown tired of the hopeless environment and lost their spirits.

Out on the streets, he was unknown so he had a relative reprieve from being recognized as the bastard child of a Japanese man and a Korean woman. Although he had heard that Japanese and Koreans got along well in other countries, places like Korea hardly offered any breaks. Old traditions and bad memories of when Korea had been subjugated by Japan still ran strong in the older generation. They still believed that the Japanese would rape and desecrate their country just like they had done before.

Hyou was thirteen years old and he was tired of it.

So everyday, he wandered the streets looking for a way out of the pain and the misery. Day after day he hoped against hope that a family would come and adopt him, take him away to a new world where he could start over. Maybe even make an adventure out of himself. He wanted a good life, away from the people who were dying from the inside out.

But he would miss the children. Whenever the caretakers simply gave up on work, Hyou came in and provided care and protection for the children. Being the oldest of the bunch, he figured that he should take care of the children, his surrogate "dhong-sangs" (younger siblings). The children loved him dearly and were the only ones that truly showed him love, other than the twenty-nine year old caretaker, Seung Han Kim, a lovely woman who stood out to Hyou. She, out of all the other staff there, was the only one who treated Hyou humanely and cared for his wounds and protected him from the prejudice that everyone showed him. She made him feel happy and willing to face another day alongside the children. This was why he had taken her last name as his own.

But it just wasn't enough.

"Damn, I just wish something would happen. I mean, so many exciting things are going on! There are sports heroes, people going into space, saving the world, everything! I want to do something..."

Hyou walked towards the park where he used to play at when he was a child. He had been abandoned by his parents when he was three years old at the orphanage. Seung had told him this and she had always become very sad and embraced Hyou tightly saying that she was sorry this had happened to him. This always confused him and she would always reply by saying,

"You were meant for so much more than just this. Every one of you were. I'm just so sad to see you grow up here, in a hopeless environment. But I'm still proud of you. You stand up and take care of the children, even when you hurt. You're a good boy, and one day you'll make a good man. I'll keep praying you find a good family who will raise you to be that man soon."

She always confused him but he was grateful and indebted to her. Since day one she had taken care of him whenever the other caretaker's prejudice got in the way. Hyou wanted to pay her back somehow. Somehow, he wanted to become a good man.

Fate, it seemed, was determined to give him that chance.

"Stop him! He stole my purse! Please, someone!"

Hyou quickly hid behind a wall and sneaked a look at the direction the voice was coming from. He saw people run away from a desperate looking man and an even more desperate women behind him slowing down. The man held a gun in his hand and was firing warning shots in the air as he ran. The gun frightened him but this was finally a chance for Hyou to do some good.

As soon as the man was in Hyou's line of sight, he clotheslined the thief and sent him flying ten feet forward, his legs having been swept from underneath him. The man quickly got up again and reached around with his pistol, aiming at Hyou's head.

Hyou, having almost literally been born and raised on the streets, reacted immediately and kicked the gun handle up making the thief miss his shot. After that, Hyou slugged him hard with his knuckles directly where the liver was located causing the man to squirm in pain and moan regretfully.

Hyou picked up the purse and handed it back to the lady who was screaming. She looked immensely happy about getting her purse back and wanted to thank Hyou properly.

"Thank you, you've probably just saved my life."

"No, I saved your purse. It was nothing really, it's alright."

The lady smiled at him feeling very grateful. She was surprised that a young boy, who looked like he was just about to enter puberty, had stood up help another person. She had personal experiences with lots of teenage delinquents and this young boy had shown her that there was hope for the new generation, after all. She had to do something to pay him back.

"Please, tell me if there's anything you need or want. I feel I owe you so much.

Hyou turned his eyes away, abashed. He had never experienced gratitude like this, much less from a total stranger. He did have a wish but instead he just mumbled,

"It was nothing, you don't have to do this for me. Anyone would have done the same..."

"But that's just it, not everyone would do the same. You're a nice boy. Can I at least congratulate your parents for raising such a good child?"

She noticed that Hyou turned his head around this time. His entire demeanor went down the drain and he looked both sad and reproachful.

"I don't have any parents, I was abandoned when I was three years old."

At this point, the police had shown up and apprehended the thief and a large crowd had gathered. Unfortunately, many of the crowd recognized Hyou. Whispers began to rush through the crowd.

"Hey, look. It's that bastard kid. Half Japanese, I hear. I bet he's the one who got in trouble."

"I knew it was just a matter of time. Kids like him will never grow up to be anything good."

The whispers grew and grew while the cops tried to disperse the crowd. Hyou stood there, dejected and the lady couldn't believe how many people were looking at Hyou with dislike in their eyes. She could hear the whispers and she could tell that Hyou could hear them as well. Gently, she took Hyou by the hand and led him through the crowd and into the street. She looked back at Hyou and felt sorry for the child with good intentions but was disliked so.

"You live at the orphanage right?"

Hyou didn't trust his voice and just nodded as he was led towards a parking lot.

"Well, let me give you a ride, then. I was just on my way there anyway."

Hyou, again, nodded and walked in silence until they reached the lady's car. Then he had to widen his eyes and gape. There, in front of him, was an all business-looking limousine complete with a chauffeur and everything. Including one very panicked looking man.

"Ji-Eun! Where have you been?! I was so worried."

Hyou guessed this man was the lady's, whom he now knew to be Ji-Eun, husband. They embraced for a few seconds and Ji-Eun turned to Hyou and addressed him.

"Young man, could you come here for a minute, please?"

Hyou walked to her feeling a little awkward as the man was studying him with curious eyes. He felt awkward, but he didn't feel wary of the man's gaze.

"Timothy, this is the young man who stopped the man who stole my purse. Could you introduce yourself to us, please?"

"Huh?"

"Well, we don't even know your name yet, and we want to thank the young man who saved the day properly."

"Oh, well, my name is Hyou, Hyou Shou Kim. It's nice to meet you both."

As tradition dictated, Hyou bowed respectfully to the couple. Timothy went up to Hyou and extended a hand and Hyou gladly accepted the handshake.

"Hm, strong grip. I like you already. You're going to grow up to be a good man one day, I can tell."

Hyou beamed at the words of praise he had wanted to hear from someone for so long. He soon found himself in the limousine driving towards the orphanage and having a nice chat with Ji-Eun and Timothy (Kang).

"So you live at the orphanage, huh? How do you like it there?"

"Well, no one really likes to live at an orphanage, much less this one. The workers are always tired and seem to have no life in them at all. But I love being there because of the children and Seung. Seung is the caretaker who cared for me since I got there. She taught me everything I know (besides my martial arts/street fighting). She's the nicest person I know. And the children, well, the children love being around me and I love being around them. They can bring a smile to anyone's face. They make it worth being there and I wouldn't trade them for anything in the world."

Timothy and Ji-Eun looked at each other and silently agreed with each other. Hyou was a good kid.

"So, Hyou, I notice that you have a Japanese name, except the surname. Why is that?"

Hyou noticably became uncomfortable and squirmed a bit in his seat and looked out the window.

"Well...see, my dad was Japanese and my mom was Korean. Seung told me that when I was dropped off at the orphanage there was a name tag that said my name was Hyou Shou Saeki. That's on account of my dad, I guess, but I don't know anything about them. I really wish I knew why my parents named me "ice", though (Hyou means ice). As for my last name now, I decided to take Seung's last name because she was more my mother than anyone I know. I've never known my parents and it leaves a bitter taste in my mouth thinking about them, so I decided to cut ties and be my own person."

As soon as he finished, they arrived at the orphanage and got out of the car. As soon as Hyou stepped out, what could be compared to a cannonball in pink clothes shot out of the entrance to the orphanage and landed on Hyou. A cute girl with long black hair about nine years old hugged Hyou as hard as she could manage.

"O-ppah (big brother, when a girl is addressing her older brother)! Where were you all day! I missed you!"

She opened her eyes and revealed two black eyes shining happily as she stared at her o-ppah sprawled on his back. Hyou laughed and got back up on his knees and gave the little girl a hug and kissed her forehead. The cute little girl giggled and gladly returned the hug and latched onto his neck as he picked her up.

"Ji-Eun, Timothy, I'd like you meet my "little sister", Stella Kim. She's one of the children living here that I told you about. Don't tell anyone, but she's my favorite."

Hyou winked and Stella giggled cutely and got off of him. She took his hand and began to drag him inside.

"Come on, Hyou! Seung made lunch for us! Let's go, let's go!"

Hyou laughed and followed her, Timothy and Ji-Eun in tow. Once they went inside, they found themselves in a small room with eight more children and an attractive looking woman in her late twenties.

"No, David! You don't eat curry with your hands! It's hot, you might hurt yourself."

"Okay, Seung, I know, I know."

David smiled at Seung and Seung smiled back, unable to stop herself from worrying about her children. Then she noticed Hyou and his company. She quickly got up and dusted her hands off on her apron and walked up to Ji-Eun and Timothy. She had a white bandanna tied around her long brown hair to hold it back from getting into the food. She had bright, brown eyes. She had on a light pink shirt, a blue knee-length skirt, and a white apron. She bowed politely to them.

"Hello, how are you doing? My name is Seung, it's nice to meet you."

"So you're Seung? It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm glad to meet the woman who turned Hyou into such a good young man."

Seung briefly looked at Hyou who smiled at her and she smiled back.

"So what did Hyou do to merit such wonderful praise?"

"He stopped a thief from stealing my purse, something many boys his age wouldn't even think of doing."

Seung beamed and it lit up her face. She turned and hugged Hyou.

"I knew it! I knew it! You're becoming such a good man, Hyou, and I am very proud of you."

The children ran up and surrounded Hyou and stared at him in awe.

"Wow, hyung (big brother, when a boy is addressing his older brother)! You're, like, a hero! That's so cool! We know a real life hero! (oh, if he only knew)"

The twins, Dah-Sol and Dah-Aye ran up and latched onto his two arms giggling and saying stuff like,

"My hero! You're so cool, o-ppah! Muh-she-ii-suh (you're so cool)!"

Stella was jumping up and down laughing and clapping her hands. All of the children forgot about lunch for a minute and all crowded their big brother and hugged whatever piece of him they could find. Ji-Eun and Timothy held each other gently and looked at the lovely scene. It made them feel a little sad about what they were about to announce.

"Excuse us. May we have a word with you, Seung, Hyou?"

They sent the children off to finish their lunch and went to a private room. There, they sat down and Ji-Eun and Timothy decided to get straight into it.

"Seung, we want to adopt Hyou today."

Seung gasped loudly and brought her hands up to her chest. Hyou sat there dumbfounded. He wasn't sure if it was a dream come true or something else. He finally had the chance to leave the orphanage with a family but he also didn't want to leave Seung and the children behind. He looked at Seung and saw that she had tears in her eyes. He didn't know what he wanted at that moment.

"..Of...of course you can. Let me draw up the papers. Excuse me."

She left the room hastily. Hyou turned to the couple with confusion on his face.

"Why? Why do you want to adopt me?"

"Why not? You're such a good young man and you showed us there is more than what meets the eye. And, well, Ji-Eun is incapable of having children.

"What?!"

Ji-Eun nodded sadly and looked at her stomach and placed a hand on it. She gently massaged it as she told him what had happened one night when she had been assaulted while she was pregnant. That night, she had lost her first child before he had ever been born. The doctor had told her that the damage to her womb had made it so that she was no longer fertile and could not produce offspring.

Hyou listened on with shock and began to understand a little. But it still felt unfair to him.

"But why me? Why not one of the younger children? What about them? Why don't you adopt one of them?"

"Because, you're special, and you remind us of what we had dreamed for our child. A headstrong, good-natured person, who cares for others before himself."

At that moment Seung came in with the forms. She still looked sad but her tears had disappeared.

"Alright, after all that is signed, Hyou will become a member of your family."

"Ok...I'll do it."

"NO!"

The door burst open and Stella ran up to Hyou and embraced him in a near death grip. The three adults and Hyou were surprised as Stella began to cry, her tears soaking Hyou's shirt. Hyou held Stella gently and whispered comforting words in her ear. She continued to hiccup and sob and shake her head.

"Hyou...Hyou we need you to sign here."

Hyou got up from his seat suddenly, still holding onto Stella and shook his head.

"No, I won't sign it! Not unless you guys adopt Stella too!"

Seung looked surprised at Hyou's reaction but Ji-Eun and Timothy smiled a little.

"Alright, we agree to your demands."

"I said-! Huh?"

Hyou blinked, he had not expected it to be that easy. He had expected a long fight with all three adults until some agreement had been reached. Or maybe he had seen too many soap operas. Hyou walked to the form and signed his name and Stella signed her name (sloppily). All the paperwork was finished, Hyou and Stella were now officially a part of the Kang family.

Seung went away to break the news to the children. Hyou followed shortly. When he reached the room the children were eating at, all the children, in turn, gave him a big hug and a tearful goodbye. But what surprised Hyou was the fact that they all had smiles on their faces. Finally, the second oldest child, eleven-year old Jason came up and hugged him. Hyou addressed him before he walked away.

"Hey, Jason, buddy. I need you to do something for me, ok? You're the big brother here now. The big man in charge, got it?"

"Yeah..."

"Listen, I need you to take care of our brothers and sisters when I'm gone. Can you do that for me? And can you take care of Seung for me? For us?"

"Of course I can! I'm big brother, now! It's my responsibility!"

Hyou smiled and gave Jason a handshake and a hug. He turned to Seung and found her holding an envelope and his limited possessions in a suitcase. She walked in front of him and handed him the envelope.

"I've always known, I guess. I've always known that you would leave one day, so I wrote this letter for you. When you turn eighteen, when you become a man, an adult, open it. Only when you turn eighteen, open it. Until then, keep it safe."

"I will...Thank you."

Hyou and Stella embraced Seung for the last time and kissed her on the cheek before they waved goodbye to her and the children. Seung watched them drive off, even after they had turned a corner. She went back inside and sat in her room until the oldest of the caretakers came in and sat next to her.

"You didn't have to do that you know."

They both stared at the picture Seung held in her hands. The glass was stained with fresh tears.

"I know, mom, I know. But I had to let him go. There was nothing for him here."

The elderly woman looked at Seung sharply.

"His mother is still here."

Seung looked up at her mother sadly but smiled.

"We all have to let them go at one point in life. I let my son take his own path because I couldn't care for him like I should have. I was too young back then. But I know that Hyou will be a good man."

Her mother smiled as well.

"Yes, he will. After all, he is extraordinarily like his mother, like you."

Hyou rode in the car and held a sleeping Stella in his arms, not knowing he had said goodbye to his mother.

**Present Day/The Future?**

Hyou finished the rest of his coffee as he watched Agudramon try to play a game on the computer. Tried because his claws were awkwardly positioned to press keys dextrously so he kept growing frustrated more and more until he quit. He grunted as he jumped off the chair as he was a fairly short digimon.

"Hey, Hyou! I'm getting kinda hungry. Let's go for a taco run!"

Hyou set down his cup smiling. He loved his digimon very much. His partner had many combined qualities of several digimon he knew. Granted, Agudramon wasn't the smartest or the most powerful. Sometimes, when he fought, he would lose due to a very stupid mistake. But Hyou supposed it was so because he completed Agudramon's faults and Agudramon completed his. They complemented each other, as all digimon and Tamers should be. It was also their similarities. They always got into trouble for some of the stupidest things but shook it off and headed straight on.

"Sure thing, buddy. The kitchen should be open, but I'm not sure the cook is there this late at night."

Then they both said at once,

"But, it never hurts to try!"

They both laughed and headed for the kitchen. Unfortunately, the cook had left for his quarters for tonight. Now, I say unfortunately because Agudramon and Hyou took it upon themselves to cook up a little something, being the unfortunate duo that they are. Needless to say, they somehow turned a taco run in the kitchen into a battlezone.

"JESUS CHRIST!"

A large knife landed point down and quivered dangerously right where Hyou's head had been just a second before. He quickly ran and ducked for cover behind a counter that was empty. Agudramon joined him a second later.

"Agudramon! Just how did you turn tortillas into fragment grenades?!"

"I don't know!"

As soon as the racket subsided, Hyou and Agudramon popped their heads from behind the counter only to meet a cold shower of water from the fire extinguishing system situated directly above their heads. Hyou groaned and landed on his back letting the water wash over him. He heard Agudramon laugh.

"Hey, hey. What's so funny, now, huh? We're drenched!"

"It's just, this reminds me of when we first met!"

Hyou smiled as the memories came back to him. Of course, how could he have forgotten that?

"Oh yeah! I remember this! Oh boy did we get into some trouble that day."

**About Three Years Before**

Hyou Shou Kim had lived with new family and new little sister, Stella Kim for two years. He still kept his surname of Kim even after being adopted by the Kang family because he wanted to keep Seung as an important part of his life. He was now a young man at the age of fifteen, that tentative age where we start to grow great interest in the opposite sex, "cool" things, and food. Lots and lots of food.

Oh, but he wasn't fat. Every chance he got, he went to the gym and did cardio workouts to keep himself fit and finished the remainder of his time with martial arts katas.

He had grown to be a young man with surprisingly tidy dark brown hair that reached his eyes in front and reached the end of his neck in the back. He now had a height of 5'8", weight of 132 lbs, with the build of an olympic swimmer, lean but strong with some muscle definition. Not something a lot of girls would drool over, though.

He was now groomed to be successor to his parents' global internet information database company, the Central Hub of Digital Information, CHDI. He and Stella had been home schooled since they were adopted. It wasn't the typical home schooling where everything was dictated and strictly controlled and the children were overworked. Their tutors were very friendly and made the material fun to learn and so they, in turn, were willing to learn and had fun in the process.

Hyou and his family was currently in West Shinjuku for a business meeting. Stella, at the moment was in the lounge playing the video games there with all the other children of the business partners. His parents were in a conference and he was wandering around the building. He had long since thrown his stuffy business coat on a random chair, loosened his black tie and unbuttoned the top button of his white dress shirt. He was pretty hungry and decided to go to the kitchen to see if they had anything for him to eat.

Unfortunately, the cooks were out on break. Note the unfortunately again. Hyou had always been fascinated by the culinary arts but had never been very apt at it. After he had destroyed half of the kitchen back at his family's mansion, his mother and tutor had shooed him out. The days after that, he noticed that culinary arts had been cut from his curriculum. For good reason.

Sure enough, ten minutes later he had introduced the world to the flour power bomb. A fourth of the kitchen was covered in flour as he tried to pound the pizza dough into the correct shape. Hyou sighed and threw that dough to the side and tried his luck with what appeared to be a second ball of pizza dough. As he had read on the internet, he punched the dough hard.

"Umph!"

"What the hell? What was that?...Huh..."

He turned to punch the dough once more but saw that it had moved a little away from him. He heard a beeping in his pocket and pulled out the toy that Stella had bought for him. It was a toy digivice from the Digimon Adventure 02. The screen that normally showed a pixelated Veemon now held static that randomly gave bursts of light. Suddenly, he heard a voice behind him.

"You know, punching me was really not nice. That really hurt!"

"WHAAA!"

Hyou turned around and now held a rubber spatula in his hands and looked for the source of the voice.

"Hey! Hey! I'm down here! It's me!"

All of a sudden, all electronic equipment went haywire and the toy D3 in his hand began to glow and screech. The glow died down but the screeching didn't. Once the glow had subsided, a D-Arc was left in his hand, still screeching. Another object began to glow. It was what Hyou mistook for a ball of dough. It fell to the ground and grew and formed a saurian shape and ceased glowing and the D-Arc stopped screeching.

The screen on the D-Arc displayed the digimon's stats.

**Agudramon**

**Level: Rookie**

**Type: Dragon**

**Attribute: Vaccine**

**A digimon similar to Agumon in the bodily sense. In battle he can be very instinctual and very stubborn. His Upwelling attack (Power: 290) is something to be feared as he takes a small portion of energy from his surroundings and everything inside (limited to a twenty meter diameter) and releases it in the form of a ball of green fire. His Black & White ability temporarily makes it so that, in a one hundred meter radius, enemy digimon have energies that are the exact opposite of Agudramon's energy. A double-edged sword, though, as Agudramon's energy is also the exact opposite of the enemy digimon's and can be susceptible to the same damaging effects. Although Upwelling is relatively weak, once combined with Black & White, can be a formidable foe.**

Hyou gaped at the digivice and at Agudramon. He had always known about digimon, even in Korea. Korea had released Korean-dubbed versions of Digimon and he had watched it with the children in the orphanage and only just recently he had found out digimon were real.

He just had one thing to say.

"Holy shit!"

Agudramon stood slighty hunched forward. He looked like an albino replica of Agumon, save for the gray claws, blue eyes, and a gray spike curving over his claws on each arm. He walked over to Hyou and began to sniff him and circled him. After a while, he looked satisfied.

"Yup, you're my Tamer, alright. A little shaken up, maybe, but you're mine!"

Agudramon hugged Hyou, taking care not to impale him with his sharp claws. Hyou relaxed and hugged him back, still visibly surprised and excited.

"This..this feels like a dream! I've got a digimon partner, now!"

"Yup, you sure do, but you've gotta remember to take good care of your partner."

"Of course!"

"Good, now let's find us some food."

They both began to pound the dough and eventually had the makings of a pizza. All they had to do was stick it in the oven and wait.

"Is it done yet?"

"No."

"...Is it done yet?"

"No."

"Is it done yet?"

"No..."

"...Is it done yet?"

"Geez, no! It's not done yet! You've gotta be patient, it takes a long time to cook a pizza, you know."

Agudramon opened the oven and a blast of hot air met the pair.

"Ack!"

"Hey, pizza! You're taking waaaaaaaay too long! Let me help you. Upwelling!"

Hyou felt an invisible force rush past him, originating from Agudramon, suddenly trails of energy began to flow into Agudramon. Hyou knew what came next.

"Noo! Wait, that's too dangerous!"

Agudramon opened his mouth and released the pent up energy. What came next was obvious. An explosion of pizza flavor erupted from the oven and sent shockwaves up to the conference room and the lounge where Ji-Eun, Timothy, and Stella were currently.

"It came from the galley!"

Everyone rushed there and did not know what to think when they saw what awaited them.

There sat Agudramon licking bits of overcooked pizza off of Hyou's face and various areas of the kitchen. Speaking of Hyou, he was all but plastered on the wall opposite the now destroyed oven. He looked up and saw everyone including his family looking at the destruction, the mess, Agudramon, and him.

"Ah...hi mom, dad, Stella. I see you've met destruction."

Agudramon walked back to Hyou and company licking off the last traces of pizza off of him.

"Hey, Hyou, I think the pizza was overcooked."

Everyone sweatdropped and Hyou sarcastically replied,

"Gee, ya think?"

Luckily everyone was familiar with digimon in West Shinjuku and agreed that Agudramon did not look or act very threateningly.

"Hey, everyone, I see you've met my new friend, Agudramon. Agudramon, this is mom, dad, and my little sister, Stella. Mom, dad, Stella, this is my digimon partner, Agudramon."

"Hi, everyone!"

**Present Day/The Future?**

After Hyou shut down the emergency system, he dried himself and Agudramon off, changed clothes, and offered to take Agudramon out to eat instead. Once they had found themselves a restaurant that was still open at 2 A.M. They ordered miso ramen and rice and settled down.

"But you can't forget, mom and dad freaked when they found out you were my partner. Stella, of course, was jumping over the moon with excitement and jealousy. She always wanted to play with you like you were some sort of doll."

"Bring you memories of anyone? I'm sure it rings a bell."

"Hah, of course, Terriermon, Lopmon, and Suzie. But at least you weren't "Pwincess Pwetty-Pants", right?"

The door opened and a voice said,

"Oh, have you ever got that right."

The duo turned around to find Henry, Rika, and Alice walk in, their digimon in tow (no Dobermon).

"Hey guys, what brings you all here?"

The three humans and two digimon took seats with Hyou and Agudramon and quickly ordered.

"We always come here after work since work seems to take up most of our evenings. If that's a problem to you, I could always give you a taste of what I gave you yesterday."

Hyou gulped as he remembered the destruction Rika had left him in when he had commented her looks in a jumpsuit.

"Nah, I'm good. Right, Agudramon?"

"Yup, especially good because she didn't hear that comment on her being a fashion model."

"Yup, exact-What?! Agudramon, that was a secret!"

"Oh ho, is that so, Hyou? I'll have a thing or two to say to you once we're done eating."

"Huh?"

"It's too public a place here to beat the shit out of you."

"Oh..."

"But how about I give you a fighting chance and let you biomerge first and do battle as digimon?"

"But you know I can't biomerge in the Real World. You have an unfair advantage!"

The wicked grin on Rika's face showed that she was well aware it was unfair and she was willing to exploit it. Henry, however, turned to Hyou and addressed the problem,

"What do you mean you can't biomerge in the Real World? I've seen you do it plenty of times before."

"Well, think about it, Henry. Why are _you_ able to biomerge in the Real World?"

"Because that Alice clone brought Dobermon to us and he gave us the gift of evolution in our plane of existence."

"Exactly! But I wasn't there was I? So I was never given the gift of evolution in the Real World."

"But how did you do it when you were in the lab? I saw it with my own eyes."

Hyou's and Agudramon's orders came in and they slurped in a couple of noodles, drank some broth, and had some rice before answering.

"Whll yhh phee, thw wz a Dhgtl Zhm-"

"Hyou, swallow your food before you answer."

Hyou smiled with his eyes at Alice and winked before he swallowed his food.

"As I was saying, well you see, there was a Digital Zone Yamaki had created in a confined area of the lab. In that area, I'm able to biomerge and hold that evolution. But should I take even one step out of that area, poof! No more Versaillemon."

Henry wasn't done yet though.

"I read some files and reports on you. Some of them claim that you had gone to the Mega level in the Real World. How do you explain that?"

Hyou drank some water and looked at Agudramon for a while before answering.

"Well, you see, Versaillemon isn't the only Mega form Agudramon has."

Both Henry and Rika opened their eyes wide. This was the first time they had heard of this. To Alice, however, this was old news. She had known for a while now.

"While we were alone, we accidentally shot up into the Mega level. You guys have been biomerging to reach the Mega level for so long, you've almost forgotten that digimon are very capable of reaching the Mega level without the help of a Tamer or Digidestined."

This time Renamon decided to speak up.

"So, about this Mega form of Agudramon, then? What exactly is it?"

"Yeah, was it anything like Megidramon or something?"

That was Terriermon. Hyou had heard of what had happened when Takato had fought Beelzebumon for the first time in the Digital World. How one of the Dark Dragon Lords was born and tore everything apart. He had witnessed the destruction Megidramon had left behind. He took his time with his answer.

"Well, he wasn't _exactly_ like Megidramon. What they both had in common was that they were never supposed to exist. The difference is that while Megidramon could be considered evil incarnate or something corny like that, Agudramon's Mega, Nebuladramon, was anything but. He wasn't evil, he was the incarnate of the most basic of instinct that is inherent in all of us. Primal instinct. That's all I can describe him as, primal."

He brought out his D-Arc and pushed a few buttons until a picture of a rough-edged white dragon digimon showed up.

It looked like it was a grey dragon with arms longer than its legs. Almost every inch of it was covered in what looked like white armour. The only unprotected part of him seemed to be his wings, completely white, more like the wings of a monster, with sharp trailing edges. His claws were gigantic and angled wickedly, bent in three different angles. His tail was a conglomeration of segmented white bits of armour. His chest seemed to cave in and a pulsing red object was hidden within behind an almost invisible plate of diamond. His maw was full of sharp needle-like teeth. His snout seemed to not have nostrils. The armour covering his snout was a huge chunk of the odd white armour with openings for his eyes and swept past the back of his head. His lower jaw was also armoured and an extra set of "teeth" jutted out and pointed down. What was most frightening about him was his eyes. Where the whites should have been, there was, instead, a blood red with a pure yellow pupil forever fixated in a feral look. Eyes that would never blink, always looking for the next target.

**Nebuladramon**

**Level: Mega**

**Type: Dark Dragon**

**Attribute: Data**

**If you're confused why this Dark Dragon Digimon is a Data type, ponder this. Nebuladramon represents the most basic of instinct in life; primal instinct. Data uncorrupted is completely pure and he has no agenda to manipulate or fix anything. He carries out his programming; a cold, cunning, killing machine. Should an enemy have a special ability that disrupts a Digimon's normal function, it would have no effect on Nebuladramon. His Particle Scream attack is just that, a high frequency scream that vibrates and amplifies whenever it hits a particle of anything. Considering that fact we live in an existence that has particles of everything surrounding us, the attack is frighteningly effective. His Cosmic Crest ability allows him to target one and only one enemy, not flinch even when hit with a powerful attack, and focus just on the tagged enemy until he/she/it is annihalated. The damage taken while using this ability is reduced but does not negate it. His Origin Laser attack is a beam of energy that focuses itself on what is calculated to be the best target on a body (this attack has been proven to be incorrect in aim many times over) and should the laser strike the target, regardless of where it strikes, it then has a 15 percent chance of forcing that enemy to go down one level. Luckily for everyone, this Digimon is particularly difficult to call upon and has only ever shown itself when extremely angered, desperate, or when his Tamer, Hyou had been near death. This mistake of digivolution has only ever been called upon once and, needless to say, left a path of death and destruction in its wake.**

"Well there you have it. My mistake of evolution. Don't misinterperate the description though. No matter how destructive he may be, he has only ever fought and annihalated his enemies and nothing else. But if anything gets in his way, well, you could kiss it goodbye. He isn't mindless, he has his own agendas and missions. He won't go on a destructive rampage."

"So if Megidramon and Nebuladramon ever fought, who d'you think would win?"

"Terriermon! That's a highly inappropriate question!"

"But, Henryyyyyyy, I wanna know!"

"Bet you you wouldn't wanna watch, though, huh?"

"Touche, Hyou."

The group of friends shared a good laugh and went to eating their meal before it got cold. While eating, a question popped up in Rika's head.

"Hey, Hyou."

Hyou looked up in the middle of slurping up a particularly long piece of noodle causing it to jump up and smack him in the forehead before it entered his mouth. Wiping off where said noodle struck him, Hyou answered,

"What's up, Rika?"

"When exactly did we meet you, again? I can't seem to remember."

"I think it was sometime during the Last War, one of those battles anyway."

**During the War to End All Wars**

Yongdramon dived down into the army of fake digimon with Hyou on his back carrying a _wakizashi_ (japanese short sword).

"Ready partner?! Taking the plunge!"

Hyou jumped off just as Yongdramon attacked.

"Breath of Light!"

A bright beam of light shone out from Yondramon's mouth and spread like cloud. Those fake digimon in the direct line of fire were instantly killed but those who received the wave that came after were just dazed and damaged a little. Taking his opportunity, Hyou ran through the crowd of dazed fakes and one by one stabbed and slashed his way through. It never ceased to amaze him that the fake digimon bled just as humans did in this realm. Wherever they had been them was a dangerous place.

Hyou quickly spun around and parried a blow from a fake Machomon and began to attack it utilizing Tai Chi incorporating the wakizashi in his deadly dance. After a couple of slashes, kicks, and palmstrikes, the Machomon was worn down a little and Hyou faked an attack to his left and swapped hands with the wakizashi and stabbed Machomon. Hyou was panting hard. He couldn't keep this up. Luckily he didn't have to. He quickly ran and jumped off a cliff and was immediately caught by Yongdramon.

Yongdramon was a lithe dragon digimon that looked similar to the Nazgul from the Lord of the Rings movies. He was just white and a bit smaller. His scales glistened and shone brightly. His long tail was not unlike a whip. He had a pointed snout that had a horn pointing out, not unlike MetalSeadramon's horn but not made of metal. His skinny arms were the bones on the ridges of his wings. His shoulders bulged with muscles to aid in speed and flight. He had silver claws that were long and deadly. His pupils were blue and became slitted whenever he entered a fight. His speed was legendary, comparable to Rapidmon on speed _and_ steroids. Granted, he was one hell of a weak attack and defense digimon for an Ultimate, though.

**Yongdramon**

**Level: Ultimate**

**Type: Dragon**

**Attribute: Vaccine**

**This white dragon is the evolved form of Gishinjimon, the Demon Dragon Digimon. If you ever play tag with this dragon, expect to lose. His speed is legendary and he has yet to find a equal in speed. However, the mass increase of speed is compensated for in the form of weaker attacks and lower defenses. The lack of a bulky build aids in speed but hinders in the fact that he has nothing to absorb impacts. His Breath of Light attack is actually a breath of fire that is hotter than the the sun but quickly disperses so direct damage is applied only to the target in the direct line of sight unless multiple targets are grouped close together. His Razor Wind attack is rather deadly as Yongdramon's best qualities are his wings and speed. Combine the two and you can either get a sonicboom or a burst of air so powerful that it cuts through almost anything. Better watch out!**

Hyou and Yongdramon looked down at the carnage below until they spotted PrincessSakuyamon in trouble. Moving as one, Yongdramon and Hyou lowered their bodies to they would travel faster. Knowing that any one of his attacks would damage PrincessSakuyamon, Yongdramon resorted to picking up ten fakes at once in his large claws as Hyou jumped off and stabbed a fake that had been sneaking up to PrincessSakuyamon in the head. He kicked what looked like a pygmy digimon off of PrincessSakuyamon's back and disposed of it quickly. He soon found himself back to back with her fighting desperately to keep their heads on their shoulders.

"So, I finally get to meet the famous duo, Rika and Renamon! I sure wish the circumstances had been different!"

"I agree with you, unfortunately."

She stabbed an oncoming fake in the face and tossed him back into the crowd behind him. She twirled her staff and channeled a little energy into her staff. A rain of cherry blossom petals swallowed their small area and momentarily weakened the fakes with their enticing aroma. Not taking any breaks, PrincessSakuyamon, Hyou, and Yongdramon began to make short work of the fake digimon.

"So, stranger, what's your name and what's your story?"

"Well, the name's Hyou and I'm a Tamer like all of you. I figured I could biomerge here but fighting in two different directions seemed to be a good plan, in theory, so Yongdramon and I decided to fight like so."

All the while, they stabbed, smacked, kicked, and tore a path through the never-ending army of fake digimon.

"Ngh! Unfortunately, due to the heat of the battle we were unable to biomerge so we're stuck like this until some peace and quiet is found."

"Fat chance of that happening!"

"Yea, no kidding!"

"Rika! Get your friend and jump!"

Instantly obeying, PrincessSakuyamon grabbed Hyou around his stomach and jumped as high as she could as the gargantuan form of EmperorMegaGargomon smashed his way through, stepping on fakes like a bunch of ants.

"Eat this! Zodiac Missiles!"

He shot twelve large missiles into the air and they came back down with the energy taking forms of the twelve beasts of the Chinese Zodiac. The recurring explosions annihalated the fake digimon as if they were going out of style.

"Hey, Henry! Meet Hyou! He's another Tamer!"

EmperorMegaGargomon turned around to look and greeted Hyou.

"It's always good to have another helping hand in this battle. It's nice to meet you."

"No way! The pleasure is all mine! You guys are the originals! The heroes! Believe me, it's nice to meet all of _you_."

**Present Day/The Future?**

"Oh yeah...you were Rika's knight in shining armour that day!"

Terriermon's ears were suddenly grabbed and he was unceremoniously thrown into his plate of food and the trashcan.

"Hey! I wasn't done with that! Aw man, now it's ruined..."

"Well think about it this way, you can experience the taste of rabbit in your stew."

"Suddenly I'm not feeling very hungry anymore."

Everyone at the table shared more laughs and Terriermon now busied himself with the basket on the counter that was full of candy. He was soon joined by Agudramon.

"So, Hyou. How do you think we're gonna do in our project?"

"What do you think? Great of course! The dimensional matter transporter's gonna work fine and we're gonna be well on our way to save Takato!"

This was a stunning change from the Hyou that Alice had seen last night. He had been panicky and scared out of his mind but now he seemed completely confident in everyone's and his ability to succeed. He reminded her so much of Takato. On the other side of the table, Rika was thinking the same thing. He brought back so many memories of Takato; his goofiness, kindness, saying stupid things at the wrong time, and his will to succeed.

'Hm...Maybe if I weren't in love with Takato I would consider becoming his lover...AS IF!'

"Rika? You ok? You seem a little flushed. Do you have a temperature?"

Hyou put his hand on her forehead which caused her to snap back to reality and instantly grab his head and plung it into the remainder of his noodles and soup and threw him into the trashcan as well. Terriermon looked down from the counter and smirked.

"Hey! Welcome to Humiliation City! Would you like a candy?"

"What are you? The mayor of Humiliation City?"

"Hey! I'm the one who makes the jokes around here!"

"Says who?!"

"Aaaarrrgh!"

Hyou and Terriermon were soon locked in mortal combat, grabbing each other's cheeks and stretching them in opposite directions and glaring while snarling at each other. The others at the table smiled and chuckled.

"Hah, so much for his martial arts training."

'Heehee, he really is just like Takato...idiot.'

**End**

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Author's Notes: Well there's the intro to Hyou, my OC. A little more insight to the future...and was that a hint of Rika/Hyou? Hah, my idea of fun, I guess. I'm so lonely... (cricketscrickets)

anyway, with this chapter comes the beginning of Part IV. so what'll happen now that all the Tamers and digimon have just become orbs of data inside of ChaosGallantmon? What's the plan and just what will happen with the Order and that Jeri clone? we couldn't tell you, the future is uncertain. what will Rika, Henry, Alice, and Hyou do? What will anyone do to change the future?

"We can only find out if we try!"

Coming up next: Part IV: For the Sake of My Loved Ones

End


	16. Giving Life and Rebirth

here it comes, another installment to this work of fiction. if it confuses you people reading it, i just wanna say that sometimes i confuse myself by thinking too much for this story.

so now you know something about Hyou, what will happen in the future with Takato and what part Hyou might play in it. Takato finished part of his mission, he now has collected orbs from all the Tamers and their digimon, but what does it mean? And now there's a clone of Jeri(?) running around working for who knows who it is. There's something distinctly familiar about it though. So now what?

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon

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**Part IV, For the Sake of My Loved Ones**

**Chapter 11**

**Now What Happens?**

**I charged upward with the full intention of doing...something to the seething mass that stood menacingly in front of me. I had lost three pairs of wings trying to at least injure him and I had succeeded in doing nothing. He just looked amused.**

**"What can one like you hope to do against me? Not even the two Chosen Ones were able to defeat me, in the end. Even if The Last Army may be greater in power and skill than mine, you stand no chance against me. Even your Crusaders are no match for me. Eventually, you will fall before my might."**

**I frowned as I continued my assault launching beam after beam after beam of energy at the grossly large, emotionless face of my enemy. I could hear tired cheers from the army below, believing that I would miraculously defeat this demon. I bared my teeth underneath my cracked, chipped, and soiled armour. Droplets of my blood fell as I soared through the sky as I flowed energy into Excalibur willing it to transform into the "God Killing Sword", the holy weapon, Ragnarok. I let out a strangled warcry and swung the mighty weapon as a large and wide blade of my energy shot out of the blade, hoping against hope that it would at least take an arm out or something.**

**As the wave made contact, a blinding light flashed, momentarily stunning the swarming mass of The Last Army and the vast army of fakes. As the light faded, I saw a large bubbling wound on the center of the large mass that quickly faded away. My arms suddenly felt weary as the large sword, Ragnarok fell to my side. I resisted the urge to fall on the ground and bow my head in fatigue.**

**There was nothing I could do...**

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I felt the familiar breaking sensation of my body as I entered the portal to the Digital World, BlackGuilmon by my side. Bit by bit, I could feel my now digitalized body configuring to the Digital World and, finally, I fell into the Digital World...literally.

"Oomph!"

The fall wasn't that bad. BlackGuilmon landing on me was, though. I stood up, exasperated and slowly arched my body backwards to get the kinks out. I snapped back up straight and rose both my arms and stretched them as well.

"Geez, you'd think after doing this a couple of times you'd get used to it, huh?"

"Doing what?"

"...Nevermind."

I chuckled a little and looked at the towering structure I had been instructed to meet Azulongmon and Zhuqiaomon at. As I looked at it, I realized that I couldn't see the top at all. It looked like whoever had crafted it had kept on going.

"Hmm...The Tower of Babel, huh? The name, just now, makes sense to me...How fitting."

"Kayamon-"

"Takatomon-d'oh! Takato, it's Takato, now."

"Oooh...ok. Takatomon, what's Babel?"

I let out a breath and closed my eyes. As I opened them again, I went into the story I had heard as a child and recited it to BlackGuilmon.

"The Tower of Babel was an idea made by humans a long, long, long, long time ago. They wanted to be famous and decided to build a structure so tall that it would be able to reach Heaven. God saw this and was displeased because these men were trying to glorify themselves. So he made each one of them suddenly speak different languages. They couldn't understand each other and were unable to finish the Tower of Babel. Because of this, they went their seperate ways with people that could understand their speach and thus made the many different nations on Earth."

"Oh...Do they have bread in there?"

I suddenly felt as if a rock had been chucked at my head and wept pitifully. Gloomily, I headed inside the massive structure. As I did so, I felt a force that felt incredibly powerful, sentient...and ancient. I immediately noticed that there were no walls, windows, or anything at all inside the building. It was as if the doorway I had used had led to a realm of nothingness that held everything. I looked above me and saw the rapidly descending forms of Azulongmon and Zhuqiaomon. Around them were nine statues of what looked like ancient warriors.

"Good to see you again, Takato. I take it you met with success?"

I stared at Azulongmon, wondering why he had not heard, yet, of what had occured right before I had left the Real World.

"Well, I wouldn't use the word success but the primary objective was completed. I recovered the Tamers' data orbs, anyway. But we ran into a complication. The one who seemed to be Jeri was just a clone and she was the one who took out most of the Tamers, not me. I didn't get to find out just who she was or if she was working with anyone but I can guarantee that we'll be seeing more of her."

Azulongmon shot Zhuqiaomon a questioning look but was greeted with a shrug (as much as a fiery bird can shrug).

"We will do what we can but let us focus on why we are here. You have the seven Tamers' data, correct?"

I nodded and held up the Lapis Lazuli, its screen displaying seven shining orbs around the edge. Azulongmon nodded and continued.

"Before I tell you what I plan to do, let me tell you a little history about this structure. It is near the core of the Digital World, the closest we could ever get to fully reaching Atanasoff and ENIAC. As you already know, Atanasoff and ENIAC are the "creators" of the Digital World. The supercomputers needed a way to structure its creation and created this tower, The Tower of Babel. From here, Atanasoff and ENIAC created different digimon from the spare data clusters you see so often. They created many of them based on nine ideas they came across while accumulating information. Those ideas were immortalized into these "statues" you see in here."

I looked around at the nine impressive figures and felt a little odd staring at them. It felt like they were staring back and reaching for something.

"By the look on your face I can tell that you've already deduced that they are more than just statues. They were among the first of what you have come to call Sovereigns. Even the four Guardians who were the current Sovereigns' predecessors come nowhere close to them. They oversaw the Digital World inside this tower but were soon locked away as the Digital World grew beyond their realm of control. Trapped inside here as the Digital World grew and grew, their power severely lessened and they sealed themselves away, awaiting the day the Digital World would need them again."

I nodded as I looked around at the impressive and beautiful figures around me. My mind was putting bits of information together slowly.

"So I'm guessing that the Digital World needs them now? I mean, why else would we be here?"

"Yes, you are correct. What happened with you after the D-Reaper set off a chain of events here that unleashed several dark energies. We believe some may have even reached beyond the Digital World and into yours. We have yet to find out exactly what those energies are and what they may do but we have at least deduced that the Order is one of the products of those energies. Kamiya, Kari and Ichijouji, Ken, being the most in-tune with the Digital World have also sensed some disturbances in my Quadrant so it would be a safe guess that those energies are in every corner of the Digital World."

I nodded in understanding. I had learned that the Chosen Children of Odaiba existed while I was training in the Digital World, learning about various Quadrants and Levels of the Digital World. I had felt a little cheated, though, knowing of their existence but being unable to see them in real life. However, with what I was putting together in my mind, I got the feeling we would meet sooner or later.

"Now, on to matters at hand. You see each of these statues around you, have you noticed something about them?"

I looked back at the statues and focused on them all. It suddenly hit me.

"All of them have at least one hand cupped and are facing the center of their circle."

"Correct. It is scribed on their pedestals that they must receive the life energy of the ones who are most similar to their aspects and they will be reawakened and freed from Babel."

"But..."

I narrowed my eyes and began to think. If the beings needed life energy to be reawakened then it would be completely used up and disappear, won't it? And I can guess that if I was brought here after I had collected data orbs from the Tamers that Azulongmon planned to use them to reawaken these guardians.

"No."

"No?"

"I won't let you use the Tamers' lives just to reawaken these guardians."

Zhuqiaomon sighed and turned to Azulongmon.

"This is why I hate children. They jump to the worst possible conclusion and stupid things result from those conclusions. Insolent little whelps."

"Huh?"

"You see, we knew that you would think like that, but it is not what you think it is. The rest of the encryption on the pedestals read that they will become reborn, almost literally, into new bodies. In other words, they will become the person, or Digimon that has its life energy offered to it."

Azulongmon didn't look finished though, so I questioned him about it.

"You look as if there's more to say."

"They will only resurrect if the life energy is the proper one offered to it."

"...So you had me take a chance for YOU to get the Tamers and see if they possibly fit the description?"

"Pretty much."

I took many many many calming breaths to stop myself from attacking Zhuqiaomon. I looked back up at Azulongmon.

"And if you're wrong? What if they don't match the description?"

"Their data will be safe, unless the spirits inside the statues grow irritated. Then they will be the farthest thing from it, facing total obliteration."

I couldn't help but feel just a little amused at how the two Sovereigns were handling this situation. They were almost human. But before I put their theory to the test, I had one last question.

"Where's Alice?"

I noticed that the two couldn't help but look a little discomforted with that question. So they answered safely.

"She's safe. I wouldn't worry about her, she can take care of herself quite well."

"Will I ever see her again? I miss her, and so does BlackGuilmon."

"I expect you will be reunited with her, one day."

"I should hope so."

"By the way, Takato. There is just one more thing."

"Huh?"

"Take a look at the statue in front of you, see if you can feel anything."

I looked at said statue and studied it. It was a statue of an angel/knight with a long and heavy looking sword, tip down with its left hand resting on it. His right hand was extented a little towards me as if it were asking someone to take his hand. I noticed that a long and lithe draconic figure was wrapped around his armour and staring at me as well.

"This statue is the statue of the "Dragon Taming Knight". I believe your world has stories of knights defeating evil dragons and the like. This is the embodiment of that idea. From that idea, ENIAC created knights and dragons and their opposing dragon and knight. What is special about this statue is that the being encased inside is actually two beings embodied as one. One being, two different lives, all at the same time, governing each other's opposites. I believe that you and BlackGuilmon were meant to give rebirth to this one."

"Exactly how would I do that? I'm not a data orb like the others, currently, and I sure as hell won't let you delete me again so you can play Operation with my data."

Zhuqiaomon, once again, grew frustrated. I quickly realized that wasn't the case.

"Alright, alright...you great flaming bird thing. So you won't scramble my data again, then how? I'm guessing you want us to Bio-merge but what then?"

"Well, we're guessing that if the life-force is sufficient to its needs, they will be reborn anyway. The Tamers weren't able to do that because they wouldn't have just let themselves be brought to the Digital World without good reason, as suspicious as our actions are. And besides, they couldn't get into the Digital World even if they wanted to."

Now that confused me.

"What do you mean?"

"Can't you recall the first time you reappeared in the Digital World? You're entire body had to be broken down into seperate data patterns for us to allow you reentry into our realm. The Tamers' data have not been reconfigured as yours has."

"Oh."

What a brilliant answer, huh?

I found myself, five minutes later, placing the orbs into what seemed its respective hand of a statue. Suzie's orb, I placed into a beautiful angel's palm. Kenta's went into the palm of what looked like an Arabic field medic. Hirokazu's orb fell into the palm of a futuristic robot swordsman. Ryo's orb went into the hand of what looked like a cross between a sage and a warrior. Henry's orb went into what looked like an imperial shogun with a look that held authority. Jeri's orb went into the hands of a shrine maiden. Rika, ironically, ended up in the hands of a princess's statue, complete with tiara and dress.

Something struck me as odd, though.

"Why are there nine statues but only eight of us? It doesn't make sense."

Even Azulongmon looked a little perplexed.

"We're not sure who the last one is supposed to be. We have been unable to locate this being, despite our best efforts. It's a real shame, this statue houses a being who holds much power, more than what half of the other spirits in this room have."

I prepared myself as ChaosGallantmon and walked up to the statue of the Dragon Taming Knight. I looked into the statue's eyes and thought I saw a glimmer of life in them.

'''You ready, BlackGuilmon?'''

'''You bet, Takato!'''

I reached up and took the statues hand...

And nothing happened.

"Uhm...Azulongmon, isn't something supposed to happen?"

"...Wait for it."

With that, the two Sovereigns took to the sky and began to chant in a forgotten language.

To the West, Baihumon gazed at the sky and chanted in perfect harmony with the other two Sovereigns.

In the North, Ebonwumon lifted his heads and followed their lead (my bad, I put the Sovereigns in the wrong quadrants in earlier chapters).

In the very center of the Digital World, an ancient digimon who went by names such as FangLongmon and HuangLongmon felt the chanting of his subordinates and channeled his power to his predecessors, willing them to wake up and protect the Digital World again.

ElDoradimon, a giant turtle-like Digimon who carries the Holy Capitol of the Digital World on his back, stopped as he felt a rush of energy from the city on his back being channeled somewhere far away.

Dianamon, goddess of the moon, looked down from a digital moon in the fifth level of the Digital World as she felt the ancient energies begin to awaken.

DexDorugoramon stirred inside of Yggdrasil's lair as he felt a massive amount of energy that neither Alphamon or Omnimon could compare to.

All over the Digital World, humans and digimon alike felt the ancient energies stirring. Every Quadrant, every Level, every Sector, every living being felt the power rumbling across the vast plane of the Digital World. Gennai, in the Eastern Quadrant, woke up from a nap as he felt Azulongmon's energy fluctuating. His old face looked grim.

"So...it begins. Will you be able to follow through with it, I wonder?"

He turned to a figure that was 'sleeping' in a tube, acknowledging its potential, and continued his work for the Sovereigns.

Tai Kamiya woke up as he felt an incredible energy rush all around him. His digivice began to screech and displayed a compass pointing to the West, startling Tai because his digivice had been inactive ever since Oikawa had died and MaloMyotismon had been defeated. Following his instinct, he decided to follow the arrow.

"Hey, hey! Agumon, wake up! We've got some work to do."

In Level 3 of the Southern Quadrant, Watanabe, Setsuna woke up when she was nearly shaken off of Seadramon when he suddenly stiffened and tensed.

"What the-! Hey, what was that for? It's nice up here, let me sleep."

Seadramon gave his Tamer a hard to define look as he continued flying through the skies of the Digital World.

In a warrior digimon village in the Southern Quadrant Level 2, Hyou and Agudramon looked up momentarily as they felt something in the Digital World 'move'.

In the highest Level of the Digital World, Varodurumon, said to have existed since the creation of the Digital World, gave a screech as it felt the power while flying fourty-thousand meters in the sky.

Everyone who felt the energies had one common thought.

'Something big is about to happen.'

Back in the Tower of Babel the statues began to fall apart and revealed a bright light trapped within each of them. Every one of those lights matched the colors of the Tamers' orbs that was placed in their hands just moments ago. Each of those lights enveloped the data orbs and began to grow, forming humanoid figures.

The statue of the Dragon Taming Knight also fell apart and revealed two different lights so bright that I couldn't tell what color they were. They both glided over to me and entered my chest and I nearly screamed from the momentary pain of two powers entering one body. I could feel my digital coding breaking down and reforming into something stronger.

The feeling soon died down and I fell on my knees with a little difficulty breathing. And then the pain and the power struck.

I snapped my head back as I was engulfed in light and rose a little into the air. I felt an energy that was pushing into a very familiar energy that was already in my coding, as if it were forcing it out and molding it.

"ChaosGallantmon Mode Change to...

"ChaosGallantmon: Chaos Mode!"

In my mindscape, I thought I heard a friendly voice again.

'''Tamer, it is good to see you again.'''

'''Grani...?'''

I woke up wondering if I had even heard the voice at all and noticed that I felt a lot like Gallantmon: Crimson Mode. I looked down and I saw that I was, in fact, him. Although the darker version. Looking at myself more closely, I saw several things that were different. I still had the five pairs of wings, now pitch black, and blue armour that matched my lighter form. I now had what looked like Blue-Digizoid greaves that ended in clawed toes with a similar ankle-spur claw. My gauntlets were now bigger and had something similar looking to blue dramon destroyers placed above my arm and slightly overlapping my hands. The areas not protected by armour now had dark grey chain mail running up and down it. All the Blue-Digizoid pointed to one thing. I should be fast as hell.

But the most obvious change was a black serpentine dragon wrapped around my upper torso, looking to be asleep or in a trance. It looked very much like a sleeker and more draconic looking BlackGuilmon.

I took another few seconds to appraise myself before that form disappeared and I reverted back to ChaosGallantmon. I dropped to a knee and stood up quickly, a little disappointed at the feeling having gone away.

"Hey, what gives? I thought we were supposed to give rebirth to the spirits?"

The two airborne Sovereigns floated back down to my level looking as if they were pondering the same thing.

"I am not sure. Perhaps it has to be properly awakened in its new form to truly mold its energy properly to its new host. But let us see if your friends have faired well."

I quickly turned to see the other Tamers still enveloped in light. While I was watching a thought hit me.

"Hey, Azulongmon. How exactly will this help me? I mean, their memories were altered, their history was altered. How am I going to defend myself from these guys if they're still out for my blood?"

"As these spirits take residence inside their new hosts, they should purge all discrepencies from their hosts bodies, bringing them back to life anew. The Tamers' memories of you before JDR-02 should resurface and take precedence over the other memories. And, if they don't, I could always whisk you away to my Quadrant and have you work from there."

I couldn't help but sweatdrop a little at Azulongmon. I had to wonder if there really wasn't any corrupted part of them because those four and a sense of humour mixed just as well as oil and water.

The blinding lights eventually died down and revealed seven digimon and seven humans. It hit me just then.

'Wait...SEVEN digimon? An Elecmon...Leomon!'

I looked up at Azulongmon and Zhuqiaomon to make sure. They both nodded and turned back to the newly reborn Tamers, digimon, and spirits.

Each of the Tamers looked older and wiser, yes, even Hirokazu. Not much had changed from their physical appearances, and, as far as I could tell, their digimon hadn't changed much either. The only notable difference was the Elecmon who had just regained consciousness and looked on in surprise as his eyes strayed to the prone form of Jeri Katou. He looked at me and the Sovereigns, as if he had to take it all in, being back in the world of the living. He locked eyes with me for a few moments and I nodded, answering his unasked question.

"Jeri!"

His strong voice woke up Jeri and everyone else. One by one they woke up saying that they had a headache that felt as if Thor were banging on their heads for days on end. Each of them had enough sense to look around and see if there was anything dangerous around, barring me, of course. Once they all took it in that I was standing in front of them, their jaws dropped and a look of fear came into some of their eyes.

Suzie looked a little happy seeing her last minute saviour but it was Kenta who surprised me the most. He smiled the largest smile he could muster and shouted for all the Digital World to hear.

"TAKATO!"

All of the Tamers present turned to Kenta with looks of disbelief and looked back at me. One by one, they all began to show looks of dawning recognization. I wonder why it was so hard to know it was me when I looked like a normal Gallantmon, just with black armour and blue trimmings.

"Angwy Kid!"

Everyone, yes everyone, snapped their heads to look at Suzie who was laughing at me and hugging my leg at the same time. I looked at Zhuqiaomon but he just gave me a look that said,

'Your problem, not mine.'

"Uh, yeah, it's me, alright."

I laughed awkwardly and patted Suzie's head (lightly). All of the Tamers finally got over the intial shock and ran at me as well.

"TAKATO!"

...Minus one.

"GOGGLEHEAD!"

I smiled a little as I heard that.

'''Hoo, boy. Here we go again.'''

'''Go where?'''

The Tamers all dogpiled me (Rika, not without giving me a good kick in the shins). I released the digivolution and BlackGuilmon and I split apart again. Both BlackGuilmon and I were overjoyed at seeing our friends again. After all, it's not everyday your friends turn into data orbs with only a slim chance of coming back.

After all the hugging and crying and laughing we all got up off the ground, if it could be called that. As I stood up, I saw the form of Rika walk up to me. I guess it was kind of a good thing I had fallen in love with Alice. When I saw Rika, up close and personal, she took my breath away. It was as if the spirit inside of her statue had taken Rika's face and made it even more attractive, beautiful and alluring. As I watched her walk up to me (in slow motion and excruciating detail) she decked me a good one right across the face.

"Where the hell have you been?! Do you know how much we've all been worrying about you?!"

"Uhm...wha?"

I swore I could have seen steam fly out of Rika's ears. Luckily, for me, Zhuqiaomon chose that moment to cough and send a little spit fire in between Rika and me. This, in turn, caused Rika to glare at Zhuqiaomon and start screaming at him. It took us a while to calm Rika down and get everyone settled around to listen to the debriefing Azulongmon was giving me. This, of course, got a big deal of wide eyes, dropping of jaws, and a bunch of "huh"'s from the Tamers and digimon.

One by one the Tamers and digimon accepted that they had been living lives that weren't theirs for a long time.

"Geez, we did all of that? Sorry, about that, Chumley."

Of course...why wouldn't you Kazu?

"First of all, don't worry about it, it wasn't you guys. Well, not really. And second, don't call me Chumley."

"Hey, Takato."

"What's up, Henry?"

"Why is that when you were biomerged, Gallantmon was black and blue?"

"Well, long story short, I kinda pulled another Megidramon moment with anger and negative emotions. This time it showed up when Guilmon turned into BlackGuilmon and we biomerged into ChaosGallantmon. I havn't found a way to purify our data yet so we've been using ChaosGallantmon ever since. Although, I'm not really complaining, ChaosGallantmon is extremely powerful and has helped me out of a few binds before during the time I was in the Northern Quadrant."

That caught Ryo's attention quick.

"Wait, you were in the Northern Quadrant?"

"Yeah, why? Something wrong?"

"No, I just liked the fact that I was the only Quadrant hopping Tamer."

Ryo was surrounded with deadpanned looks from everyone, yes, everyone. That is until his two biggest fans' brains caught up with them.

"WAIT JUST A MINUTE, HERE!"

Everyone, yes, everyone, turned to Hirokazu and Kenta as they ran up to Ryo with demanding looks on their faces.

"Err...what?"

"So you're telling us that you really have been Quadrant hopping all the time you were stuck in the Digital World?"

"Uhm...yeah."

"So everything that happened in the video games is true?! You really met the Digidestined and defeated Milleniummon with Ken?!"

"Uhm...yeah, I did do all that, didn't I? Wait, they made video games about me?! Why didn't anyone tell me about this?!"

Henry, however, did the smart thing and asked Azulongmon.

"Is this all really true? Is that why he was in the Digital World for so long. Is that also why Rika, consequencially, won that Digimon Card Game tournament?"

A loud "WHAT?!" echoed in the endless space we were in but we paid it no mind.

Azulongmon sighed and closed his eyes, revealing that he some skeletons to reveal. He opened his eyes and looked at Ryo who looked at back at him a little sharply. Azulongmon couldn't really blame him. Ryo had a lot to blame him for. After all, messing with someone's life, pitting him against what is arguably the most powerful digimon in existence, making him fight his friends in some bogus tournament just so he would be his weapon against Milleniummon, and, inadvertantly, causing his best friend to succumb to the power of the Dark Spore would cause one to lose much faith, even in someone like Azulongmon.

"Yes, Ryo was first called to the Digital World to train and defeat Milleniummon. I owe him a debt of gratitude...and I also owe him an apology."

"What?"

"I forced Ryo to come here because I was not powerful enough to stop Milleniummon on my own. I used him to build up an army of digimon and push him to his limits to become powerful enough to defeat Milleniummon. I deceived him so he could defeat Milleniummon for me and that was one of the reasons why Ken Ichijouji was implanted with the Dark Spore."

The Tamers (minus me) were stunned by this knowledge. They had known Ryo was in the Digital World vastly longer than any of us ever have. It is a little unsettling learning one of your friends is a multi-dimensional hero. But on to the important matters.

"THEY MADE VIDEO GAMES ABOUT ME! ABOUT ME! AND I DIDN'T EVEN GET ONE FRIGGIN' YEN! THAT IS NEAR COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT!"

Like copyright infringements and lawsuits.

I really missed them, a lot. I've never been happier before. The only thing that could make this better was the presence of one special person.

'Alice, I miss you. I hope I'll see you again.'

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

**Author's Note:** Yeah, my updates are few and far in between, but I'm trying my best to put in more knowledge of the Digital World, Digimon in general, and a good thick slice of drama, angst, romance, suspense, and humour in my story. I'm falling in love with my story more and more, seeing it improve more and more with every chapter I write. I want it to be awesome, so please, bear with me.

Well, all the Tamers are back, awesome! But what's up with all those spirits, statues, and ChaosGallantmon's new form? How much more powerful have the Tamers become thanks to the spirits that they have just given rebirth to?

**Up Next: **Now that the Tamers and their digimon have been reborn, with a few upgrades, what's going to happen next? Well obviously we're gonna have showdowns with several more members of the Order of the Dark Lords and the newly rebirthed Tamers. What the-? Another dimensional crisis? And it doesn't involve Ryo this time? Guess that's my cue! Hey, wait a minute! I've seen you before in one of the Digimon movies! Crap! Stay tuned as a threat from another dimension arises! Yggdrasil makes his move! Enter the Reformation and the introduction of the X-Antibody in the Tamers' Universe!


End file.
